DAUGHTERS   OF  AMERICA; 


OR, 


WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 


PHEBE  A.  HANAFORD, 

AUTHOR  OF  "LIFE  OF  GEORGE  PEABODY,"  "FROM  SHOKE  TO  SHORE,  AND 

OTHER  POEMS,"  "LIFE  OF  CHARLES  DICKENS,"  "LIFE  OF 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,"  "  THE  CAPTIVE  BOY," 

"  THE  YOUNG  CAPTAIN,"  ETC. 


•'  0  woman,  great  is  thy  faith  !  '    JESUS  CHRIST 

*  A  good  woman  is  the  loveliest  flower  that  blooms  under  heaven." 

THACKERAY. 

*  Ah  me  !  beyond  all  power  to  name,  the  worthies  tried  and  true, 
Grave  men,  fair  women,  youth  and  maid,  pass  by  in  hushed  review.'1 

WHITTI2B. 


AUGUSTA,  ME.: 
TEUE  AND  COMPANY. 

1883. 


Copyright,  1882, 
BY  TRUE  &  COMPANY 


.  H  / 


i 

THE  WOMEN  OF   FUTURE   CENTURIES 

>- 

OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 

THIS  RECORD  OF  MANY  WOMEN  OF  THE   FIRST  AND  SECOND  CENTURIES, 

S 

WHOSE   LIVES  WERE   FULL   OF  USEFULNESS, 

8 

g  AND  THEREFORE   WORTHY   OF  RENOWN  AND  IMITATION, 

faj  nob  Enscribe&. 

* 


1 


4613385 


PREFACE. 


AMERICA  has  been  richly  blessed  in  its  women,  as  weL  as 
its  men,  of  patriotism,  intelligence,  usefulness,  and  moral 
worth.  Indeed,  it  has  been  a  marvel  to  many  in  the  Old 
World,  that  the  women  of  the  New  have  been  in  many 
instances  so  thoroughly  cultured,  so  admirably  developed 
morally  and  intellectually,  amid  so  much  that  was  new  and 
therefore  crude  in  society,  and  in  a  freedom  which  the 
women  of  European  nations  have  never  enjoyed,  and  of 
which  those  of  Asiatic  peoples  never  dreamed.  A  cultured 
Christian  woman  of  English  birth  and  education,  but  now 
in  a  lovely  Scottish  home,  wrote  to  the  writer  of  this  volume, 
that,  when  visiting  America,  that  which  she  most  enjoyed 
"was  the  sense  of  freedom,"  —  a  freedom  which  has  been  the 
high  privilege  of  the  women  of  our  first  century,  and  will 
be  yet  more  the  glorious  heritage  of  the  women  of  the  second, 
as  the  ripened  fruit  is  garnered  from  the  promise-blossom. 
"  It  seemed  to  me,"  wrote  the  lady  above  mentioned,  "that 
by  that  freedom  I  was  lifted  up  to  a  larger  and  diviner  life, 
and  a  tender  and  reverent  expectation  of  glorious  possibili- 
ties for  our  race,  and  especialhy  for  women."  And  this 
record  of  the  noble  and  useful  lives  of  many  women  in  our 
broad  land  during  the  century  of  American  independence, 
will  prove,  that,  though  society  might  be  in  an  imperfect 


6  PREFACE. 

state,  yet  propriety  and  growth  consist  ever  with  a  righteous 
freedom,  a  true  liberty,  which  is  under  holy  law. 

The  centennial  of  American  existence  cannot  properly  be 
observed  without  a  reference  to  its  women,  as  well  as  to  its 
men.  Other  pens  may  write  eloquently  of  its  patriots,  its 
.nventors,  its  warriors,  its  professional  and  literary  and 
other  men  in  public  life,  who  have  left  their  mark  upon  the 
centurj1-,  and  won  the  world's  honors  and  the  favor  of  the 
good  and  wise ;  but  the  writer  of  this  unpretentious  record 
will  be  abundantly  satisfied  if  she  may  but  so  present  the 
truth  about  American  women  as  to  prove  "  before  all  Israel 
and  the  sun,"  that  the  nation  is  indebted  for  its  growth 
and  prosperity  as  a  people,  and  for  its  proud  position 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  to  its  women  as  well  as  to 
its  men. 

The  women  who  have  wrought  quietly  in  their  homes  are 
not  forgotten  or  ignored,  while  those  who  are  more  promi- 
nent are  herein  approved  ;  but  the  record  would  fill  too  largo 
a  volume,  were  not  the  number  of  those  mentioned  limited. 
Each  true  life,  whether  public  or  private,  which  any  woman 
of  the  centuiy  has  lived,  goes  to  make  up  the  character  and 
gloiy  of  the  land  and  the  age ;  and  every  high  soul  rejoices 
in  the  welfare  of  her  native  laud,  whether  her  name  be  found 
on  the  scroll  of  its  famous  women,  or  not. 

The  author  hereby  extends  her  hearty  thanks  to  all  those 
who  have  assisted,  in  any  wise,  in  the  preparation  of  this  book. 
May  this  record  help  to  impress  upon  the  men  and  women  of 
the  future  a  sense  of  the  obligation  which  this  nation  is  under, 
and  the  respect  and  honor  which  the  world  owes,  to  the  women 
of  the  first  American  century  ! 

P.  A.H. 
JBRSET  CITT  HEIGHTS,  N.  J. 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


HAVING  decided  to  extend  the  record  of  noted  women,  this 
now  edition  is  revised  and  improved,  and  its  new  title,  "  Daugh- 
ters of  America,"  permitted  to  cover  not  only  the  names  of 
women  who  were  prominent  in  the  first  century  of  our  Repub- 
lic, but  also  many  others  whose  biithday  may  be  in  the  first, 
but  whose  labors  are  now  making  the  second  century  glorious. 
The  women  of  the^first  and  second  centuries  of  our  nation's 
life  will  forever  be  acknowledged  as  the  shapers  of  its  lofty 
destinies  and  marvelous  triumphs  in  very  many  directions 
The  sowers  and  the  reapers  shall  rejoice  together. 

P  A.  H. 

JEEBETCITT,  N.  J.,  1882. 


CONTENTS. 


WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 
CHAPTER  I. 

PKELIMINARY. 

PAG  a 

Woman  as  the  Daughter  of  the  Heavenly  Father. — "Woman  in 
Heathenism.  —  Women  of  Israel.  —  Roman  Matrons.  —  Athe- 
nian Virgins.  —  Spartan  Heroines.  —  Woman  helped  by  Chris- 
tianity.— Women  of  Asia,  Europe,  Africa,  America,  and  the 
Isles  of  the  Sea.  —  Pocahontas.  —  The  Cacique's  Daughter.— 
Widow  Storey.  — The  Pilgrim  Mothers.  —  Phillis  Wheatley.  — 
Hannah  Dustou.  —  Colonial  Women.  — Mercy  Warren.  — Mary 
Washington .19 

CHAPTER  H. 

WOMEN  OF  TEX  REVOLUTION. 

Declaration  of  Independence. — How  and  when  made  first  by  a 
Woman,  Abigail  Adams.  —  A  Philadelphia  Woman's  Letter.  — 
Deborah  Franklin.  —  Elizabeth,  Grace,  and  Rachel  Martin.— 
Deborah  Samson.  —  Mother  Bailey.  —  Heroism  of  Schoharie 
Women.  —  Anne  Fitzhugh.  -  Moll  Pitcher.  —  The  Country  Girl. 
The  Women's  Leagiie.  —  Esther  Reed.  —  Lydia  Darrah.  — 
Groton  Women,  £c 45 

CHAPTER  TTT. 

THE  WIVES  OF  THB   PRESIDENTS. 

Martha  Washington.  —  Abigail  Adams.  —  Martha  Jefferson.  —  Dolly 
P.  Madison.  —  Mrs.  Monroe.  —  Louisa  Catherine  Adams.  — 
Rachel  Jackson. — Hannah  Van  Buren. — Anna  Harrison. — 
Letitia  Christian  Tyler.  —  Julia  Gardner  Tyler.  —  Sarah  Polk.  — 
Margaret  Taylor.  —Abigail  Fillmore.  —  Jane  Apploton  Pierce. 
—  Mary  Todd  Lincoln.  —  Eliza  Johnson.  —  Julia  Grant.  —  Lucy 
W.  Hayes.  —  Lucretia  R.  Garfield.  —  Ella  L.  Arthur  .  .  .  M 

9 


10  CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

CHAPTER  IV. 

WOMEN  LEADERS   IN  8OCIETT. 

Martha  Jefferson  Randolph.  —  Mrs.  Donelson.  —  Mrs.  Andrew  Jack- 
son, jun.  —  Angelica  Van  Buren.  —  Abigail  Fillniore.  —  Harriet 
Laiie.  —  Martha  Patterson.  —  Mary  Stover.  —  Sarah  Livingston 
Jay.  —  Elizaheth  Temple  "\Vinthrop.-Mercy  "Warren.  —  Han- 
nah "Winthrop,  &c  ...........  109 

CHAPTER  V. 

PHILANTHROPIC  WOMEN. 

Susan  Hnntington.  —  Margaret  Prior.  —  Mary  Ledyard  —  Kate 
Moore.  —Ida  Lewis.  —  Father  Taylor's  Widowed  Friend.— 
Sarah  Hoffman.  —  Isabella  Graham.  —  Sophia  C.  Hoffman.  — 
Lydia  Maria  Child.  —  Maria  Chapman  and  other  Anti-Slavery 
Women.  —  Charity  Rodman.  —  Dorothea  L.  Dix.  —  Clara 
Barton,  &c  .........  .  .  .  .131 

CHAPTER  VI. 

WOMEN  DURING  THE  CIVIL  WAB. 

Women  of  the  Sanitary  Commission.  —  Women  of  the  Christian 
Commission.  —  Women  Soldiers.  —  Women  Nurses.  —  Women 
Teachers  among  the  Freedmen.  —  Heroic  Women,  North  and 
South  .............  165 

CHAPTER  VH. 

LTTERAllY   WOMEN. 

Hannah  Adams.  —  Catherine  M.  Sedgwick.  —  Catherine  E.  Beecher. 
—  Sarah  J.  Hale.  —  Margaret  Fuller  D'Ossoli.  —Adeline  D.  T. 
Whitney.  —Harriet  Beecher  Stowe.  —  Frances  Dana  Gage.— 
Julia  Ward  Howe.  —  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps.  —  Louisa  M. 
Alcott,  &c  .......  .....  194 


CHAPTER 

WOMEN  POBTS. 

J  ulia  Ward  Howe.  —  Lydia  H.  Sigourney.  —  Elizabeth  Akers  Allen. 

—  Lucy  Larcom.  —  Alice  and  Phebe  Carey.  —  Frances  S.  Osgood. 

—  Caroline  A  Mason.  —  Celia  Thaxter,  &c  ......  229 

CHAPTER  IX. 

WOMEN-SCIENTISTS. 

Maria  Mitchell.  —  Grace  Anna  Lewis.  —  Sarah  Hackett  Stevenson. 

—  Ann   Maria  Redfi  eld.  —  Lydia  F.  Fowler.  —  Elizabeth   C. 
Agassiz.  —  Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell,  and  others  .        .260 


CONTENTS.  11 


CHAPTER  X. 

WOMEN  ARTISTS. 

Harriet  Hosmer.  —  Emma  Stebbins.  —  Eliza  Greatorex.  —  Lily  M. 
Spencer.— Margaret  Foley.  —  May  Alcott.  —  Emily  Sartain.— 
Mary  B.  Mellen,  and  others 271 

CHAPTER  XI. 

WOMEN  LECTURERS. 

Mary  A.  Livermore.  —Anna  E.  Dickinson.  —  Abby  Kelley  Foster. 

—  Elizabeth  K.  Churchill.  —  Frances  E.  W.  Harper.  —  Sojoiirner 
Truth. —Mary  F.  Eastman,  &c 305 

CHAPTER  Xn. 

WOMEN  REFORMERS. 

Anti-Slavery  and  Temperance  Workers.  —  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton. 

—  Lucy  Stone.  —  Lucretia  Mott.  —  Frances  Dana  Gage.  —  Susan 

B.  Anthony.  —  Frances  E.  Willard,  and  others     .        .        .        .331 

CHAPTER  XHL 

WOMEN  PREACHERS. 

Quaker  Preachers.  —  Mrs.  Van  Cott  and  her  Methodist  Sisters.— 
Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell.  —  Olympia  Brown.  —  Phebe  A. 
Hanaford.  —  Ada  C.  Bowles,  &c 415 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

•WOMEN  MISSIONARIES 

Ann  H.  Judson.  —  Harriet  Newell.  —  Sarah  B.  Judson.  —  Henrietta 
Shuck.  —  "Women  connected  with  the  various:  Church  Boards  of 
Foreign  and  Home  Missions. — Woman's  Centenary  Associa- 
tion.—  Mrs.  Howe's  Peace  Mission  to  England,  &c.  .  .  .  477 

CHAPTER  XV. 

WOMEN  EDUCATORS. 

Catherine  E.  Beecher.  —  Mary  Lyon.  —  Elizabeth  P.  Peabody.— 
Martha  Whiting.  —  Wages  of  Women  as  Teachers. — Women 
on  School  Committees,  and  as  Trustees  and  Professors  of  Edu- 
cational Institutions ...  496 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

WOMEN  PHYSICIANS. 

Harriot  K.  Hunt,  and  Sister.  —  Mercy  B.  Jackson.  — The  Influence 
of  Marie  Zakrzewska  and  the  Blackwell  Sisters.  —  Clemeuce 
Lozier.  —  Mary  Putnam  Jacobi.  —  Susan  Dimock,  and  others  .  531 


12  CONTENTS. 

PAGH 

CHAPTER  XVIL 

WOMEN  AS  READERS,   ACTORS,   AND  SINCERE. 

Charlotte  Cushman. —  Maggie  Mitchell. — Clara  Louise  Kellogg, — 
Louise  Wood  worth  Foss.—  Anna  Cora  Mo  watt  Ritchie.  — S. 
Emma  Cowell.  —  Anna  Randall  Diehl 556 

CHATTER  XVH1. 

WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS. 

Rebecca  Motte.  —  Susanna  "Wright.  —  Emily  Ruggles.  —  Susan 
King. — Women  as  Retail  Traders.  —  Sewing- Women.  —  Women 
in  Post-Offices.  —  Women  as  Telegraphers.  —  Women  in  Light- 
houses.— Women  Clerks.  —  The  Army  of  Workers  in  Homes, 
Stores,  and  Factories  .  581 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

WOMEN  OF  FAITH. 

Christian  Mothers,  Wives,  Sisters,  and  Daughters.— The  Praying 
Bands.  —The  Crusaders.  —Lucy  Hoyt.  —  " Mahelle."  —  Mother 
Taylor.  —  The  Bethesda  Home.  —  Phebe  Palmer  .  .  .  .597 

CHAPTER  XX. 

WOMEN  INVENTORS. 

The  Cotton-Gin.  —  The  Sifter.  —  Women's  Industries  and  Inven- 
tions.— Invention  suggested  hy  Accident  .  .  .  .621 

CHAPTER 


WOMEN  LAWYERS. 

Phebe  W.  Cozzens.  —  Myra  Brad  well.  —  Clara  H.  Nash.  —  Charlotte 
E.  Ray.  —  Helena  Barkalow,  and  others 635 

CHAPTER  •y^TT 

WOMEN  JOURNALISTS. 

Caroline  A.  Soule.  —  Emma  Molloy.  —  Paulina  W.  Davis.  —  Jane 
E.  Swisshelm.  —  Amelia  Blumer,  and  others 661 

CHAPTER  XXIJT. 

WOMEN  PRINTERS. 

The  Misses  Franklin.  —  Sarah  Goddard.  —  Mary  Katherine  God- 
dard.  —  Penelope  Russell.  —  Augusta  A.  Miner.  —  Anna  E. 
Briggs.  —Harriet  G.  Miller.  —  The  Turner  Sisters.  —The  Bazln 
Sisters,  and  others .  687 


CONTENTS.  13 

fAQB 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

WOMEN     LIBRARIANS. 

Lorenza  Paynes  —Elizabeth  C.  Todd.  —  Maria  Mitchell.  —  Sarah 
J.  Barnard,  &c 697 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

WOMEN   AGRICULTURISTS. 

M.  Louise  Thomas.  —  The  Sisters  of  Dntchess  County.  —  Lucilla 
Tracy.  — Miss  Morgan. —Mary  Wilson,  &c.  .        .        .       .700 

CHAPTER    XXVL 

WOMEN  HISTORIANS. 

Hannah  Adams.  —  C.  Alice  Baker.  —  Martha  T.  Lamb.  —  Clarissa 
Butler,  and  others 710 

CHAPTER  XXVH. 

WOMEN  TRAVELLERS. 

Whalers'  Wives.  —  Mary  D.  Wallis.  —  Lucinda  H.  Stone.  —Julia 
Ward  Howe,  &c .  ...  715 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

PHEBE  A.  HANAFORD  (Steel)        ......  Frontispiece 

HANNAH  DUSTON  MASSACRE      - 35 

HANNAH  DUSTON  MONUMENT        , 39 

MARTHA  WASHINGTON       .                67 

MRS.  U.  S.  GRANT  . .  95 

MRS.  R.  B.  HAYES 99 

MRS.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD       „ 103 

IDA  LEWIS 137 

LUCRETIA  MOTT 151 

ALICE  CART 211 

PHCEBE  CART 215 

MRS.  JULIA  WARD  HOWE 231 

VASSAR  COLLEGE 253 

OBSERVATORY  VASSAR  COLLEGE 257 

MRS.  MARY  A.  LIVERMORE 307 

Miss  FRANCES  E.  WILLARD     „ 369 

MRS    ANNIE  WITTENMEYER          .......  375 

MRS.  DR.  McCABE ,383 

MRS.  ELIZA  J.  THOMPSON 393 

MRS.  MARY  C.  JOHNSON   - 401 

MRS.  SARAH  K.  BOLTON .        .  405 

MRS.  MARY  T.  BURT        , 409 

ELIZABETH  COMSTOCK   ...        - 419 

MRS.  JENNIE  F.  WILLING         « 441 

MRS.  MAGGIB  N.  VAN  COTT 461 

LASELL  SEMINARY     .        , 511 

WELLESLEY  COLLEGE    ....                ....  521 

LOUISE  W.  Foss        « 563 

MOTHER  TAYLOR 603 

BETHESDA  HOME        .                 .                609 

MOTHER  GARFIELD 617 

MRS.  JUDITH  ELLEN  FOSTER  ....                ...  655 

EMILY  HDNTINGTON  MILLER        .       .               ....  685 


WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUKY, 


WOMEN    OF   THE   CENTURY. 


CHAPTER    I. 

PRELIMINARY. 

Woman  as  the  Daughter  of  the  Heavenly  Father  —  Woman  in  Hea- 
thenism—  Women  of  Israel  —  Koman  Matrons  —  Athenian  Virgins 
—  Spartan  Heroines  —  Woman  helped  by  Christianity  —  Women  of 
Asia,  Europe,  Africa,  America,  and  the  Isles  of  the  Sea  —  Poca- 
hontas  — The  Cacique's  Daughter— Widow  Storey  — The  Pilgrim 
Mothers  —  Ph ill  is  Wheatly  —  Hannah  Duston  —  Colonial  Women  — 
Mercy  Warren  —  Mary  Washington. 

"  Not  she  with  traitorous  lip  the  Master  stung; 
Not  she  denied  him  with  a  liar's  tongue : 
She,  when  apostles  fled,  had  power  to  brave,  — 
Last  at  the  cross,  and  earliest  at  the  grave." 

EATON  S.  BARRETT. 

"So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the  image  of  God  created  he  him  ; 
male  and  female  created  he  them."  —  GEN.  i.  27. 

Ifi  VERY  woman  is  a  daughter  of  Almighty  God,  as 
-»— J  every  man  is  his  son.  Each  was  created  in  the 
divine  image,  and  for  each  the  path  of  duty  and  des- 
tiny is  the  same.  As  the  same  sky  bends  over  both,  so 

19 


20  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

around  his  sons  and  his  daughters  alike  the  almighty 
Father  places  the  arm  of  his  protecting  love.  He  has 
given  them  varied  labors,  but  the  same  capacities  for 
intellectual,  social,  and  moral  advancement,  each  in  the 
way  belonging  to  the  individual  as  a  unit  in  the  great 
sum  of  humanity.  He  has  given  to  neither  power  over 
the  other.  Man  was  not  made  subject  to  woman,  nor 
should  woman  be  subject  to  man.  Neither  men's  rights 
nor  women's  rights  should  be  considered,  but  human 
rights,  —  the  rights  of  each,  the  rights  of  all.  Men 
and  women  rise  or  fall  together.  History  shows  that 
no  nation  can  enslave  its  women,  but  it  insures  its  own 
barbarism.  In  proportion  as  society  advances  in  cul- 
ture, women  are  freed  from  an  unholy  tyranny,  and  in 
that  righteous  freedom  are  able  to  do  muck  for  the 
world's  advancement.  Every  civilized  nation  owes 
much  to  its  women.  And  the  student  of  history  clearly 
perceives  that  the  advancement  of  any  nation  is  marked 
by  the  progress  of  its  women;  and  therefore  social, 
literary,  and  professional  life  in  America  may  be  clearly 
exhibited  by  a  fair  -statement  of  the  characteristics, 
labors,  and  successes  of  the  women  who  have  become 
in  any  way  notable  during  the  century  which  limits  the 
history  of  the  United  States.  The  new  century  opens 
with  brilliant  prospects  from  the  large  number  of  its 
women  still  living  who  are  active  in  good  works  and 
noble  reforms,  giving  fair  springtime  promise  of  the 
coming  centuries  in  which  a  glorious  harvest  shall  be 
garnered,  while  women  and  the  race  advance  towards 
high  moral,  intellectual,  and  even  physical  development. 
But  before  speaking  particular!}7-,  and  at  some  length, 
concerning  the  women  of  the  first  United  States  cen- 
tury, a  few  preliminary  statements,  illustrated  by 
historic  facts,  may  be  made  with  profit.  We  cannot 


PEELIMINAKY.  21 

forget  that  woman,  the  daughter  of  the  almighty 
Father,  has  had  for  ages  to  advance  with  man,  her 
brother,  a'ong  the  path  of  savagery,  and  struggle  up, 
with  him,  through  the  eras  of  mythology  and  Judaism, 
to  the  present  era  of  Christianity.  Space  forbids  an 
extended  historic  delineation  of  that  progress ;  but,  as 
we  glance  along  the  pathway  of  the  vanished  centuries, 
we  can  see  an  astounding  contrast  between  the  women 
of  earlier  ages  and  the  women  of  to-day. 

Woman  was,  and  ever  is,  in  heathenism,  abject  and 
miserable.  As  a  girl-infant,  she  is  scarcely  permitted 
to  live;  her  maidenhood  has  no  incentives  to  purity 
and  wisdom;  and,  when  she  becomes  herself  a  mother, 
she  may  be  seen  often  casting  her  own  helpless  babes 
to  the  Nile  and  its  crocodiles,  or  becoming  herself  a 
sacrifice  before  the  car  of  some  Juggernaut.  The 
horrors  of  heathenism  in  the  Old  Wor?  1,  and  on  the 
islands  of  the  sea,  have  been  graphically  told  by  Chris- 
tian missionaries  and  others,  while  the  pens  which  have 
told  of  woman's  position  amid  the  Pagans  of  the  New 
World  have  not  been  able  to  trace  any  brighter  lines. 
Everywhere  the  records  show  that  woman  is  despised, 
abused,  and  degraded  under  the  influence  of  heathen- 
ism, that  at  least  of  savage  races  and  barbarous 
tribes.  Every  step  of  human  progress,  from  brutal 
savagism  to  the  exalted  state  of  civilization,  the  result 
of  menta^  and  moral  culture,  which  is  enjo3Ted  in  Eu- 
rope and  America,  has  been  accompanied  by  the  loos- 
ening of  the  chains  of  selfishness,  and  the  redemption 
of  society  from  the  thraldom  in  which  too  often  the 
soul  is  held  by  the  animal  propensities;  and  thus 
woman  has  advanced  to  loftier  position  and  to  a  happier 
sphere. 

Feminine  characteristics  are  allowed  by  many  writers 


22  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

and  thinkers  on  the  subject  to  be  of  finer  nature  than 
those  which  are  purely  masculine ;  at  least  the  naturally 
kind  disposition  of  the  woman  heart  has  been  contrast- 
ed with  that  of  the  masculine ;  sometimes,  and  with 
seeming  justice,  to  the  disparagement  of  the  latter. 
One  writer  finds  a  signal  illustration  of  this  in  "  the 
conduct  displayed  by  woman  on  the  occasion  of  the 
great  tragedy  of  Calvary.  He  says,  and  truly  if  the 
record  is  complete  and  reliable,  "  Men  alone  clamored 
for  Jesus'  life:  no  woman's  voice,  thank  God,  was 
heard  in  the  clamor.  A  man  betrayed  him,  and  for  a 
very  gross,  material  consideration.  A  man  condemned 
him  to  death ;  the  man's  wife,  in  greater  pity,  begged 
to  have  his  life  spared.  Men  heartlessly  deserted  him 
in  the  hour  of  his  trial.  Of  his  chosen  friends  and 
disciples,  the  men,  in  a  cowardly  manner,  ran  away  and 
left  him  in  the  hands  of  his  destroyers.  Woman  fol- 
lowed him,  shedding  tears  of  sympathy  and  pity. 
Woman  alone  pressed  her  way  through  that  murderous 
crowd  to  the  very  foot  of  the  cross,  and  there  poured 
out  her  prayers  and  tears  in  behalf  of  the  world's 
dying  martyr.  Woman  embalmed  his  precious  body. 
Woman  first  greeted  him  when  he  had  burst  the  bonds 
of  death,  and  triumphed  over  the  grave.  Woman  was 
first  commissioned  to  go  and  proclaim  the  glad  tidings 
of  his  resurrection.  And  woman  to-day  stands  first  and 
foremost  in  her  Master's  work,  —  the  truest  disciple  and 
best  representative  of  his  divine  life  the  world  affords."  l 
This  may  seem  a  somewhat  extravagant  statement  tc 
some.  It  is  certainly  eulogistic  of  woman ;  but  what 
eulogy  can  surpass  the  Master's  "  Well  done,"  which 
men  and  women  may  both  receive,  if  alike  faithful  to 
the  calls  of  duty  and  the  voice  of  an  enlightened  con 

1  "Woman  and  tlie  Divine  Republic,  by  Leo  Miller,  p.  33. 


PRELIMINARY.  23 

science  ?  The  verdict  of  history  will  surely  be  in  their 
favor  who  deserve  it,  whenever  history  is  written  by  an 
impartial  pen ;  and  both  man  and  woman  can  afford  to 
wait. 

The  apostolic  writings  give  a  feminine  name  and 
character  to  the  Christian  Church,  —  the  bride  of 
Christ ;  and  hence  the  writer  above  quoted  draws 
the  conclusion,  that,  "  in  proportion  as  woman  is  ele- 
vated and  promoted,  will  the  divine  religion  of  Jesus 
prevail ;  and,  in  the  ratio  that  that  prevails,  will  woman 
be  lifted  out  of  her  subject  state."  He  believes  also, 
that  moral  elements  controlling  in  society  are  needed  ; 
and  that  Christian  women  are  to  supply  those  elements, 
partly  because  Christian,  and  very  largely  because 
women.  In  his  laudable  enthusiasm,  he  goes  on  to  pic- 
ture the  future  of  the  world  when  the  Christian 
women  of  coming  centuries  shall  do  fuily  the  work 
God  has  given  woman  to  do.  "  I  have  now  no  more 
doubt,"  he  says  :  "  I  am  fully  persuaded,  that  emanci- 
pated, enlightened,  and  enfranchised,  she  will  be  equal 
to  the  demand.  Commissioned  by  the  great  Messiah, 
and  clothed  in  the  armor  of  affection,  she  will  go  forth 
to  conquer  the  world  with  the  sword  of  the  Spirit.  The 
shining  hosts  of  heaven  will  enlist  under  her  banner  of 
love ;  and  Christ  himself  will  lead  the  way.  The 
whole  world  will  surrender  to  her  divine  command, 
and  before  her  triumphant  march  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness flee.  Prison-houses  will  be  transformed  into 
schools,  and  dram-shops  and  brothels  be  turned  into 
market-places  and  homes  of  purity.  Inebriates  will 
shake  off  the  demon  spell  that  enslaves  them,  and  stand 
erect  in  their  manhood ;  and  the  Magdalen  sisters  of 
men  will  look  up  and  smile  amid  tears  of  repentance 
and  peace.  Oppression's  yoke  will  be  broken,  and  the 


24  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

clanking  chains  of  the  captive  be  heard  in  the  land  no 
more  forever.  The  scaffold,  the  slave-pen,  and  the 
whipping-post  will  be  remembered  only  as  relics  of 
an  animal  age.  Navies  will  be  turned  into  ships  of 
commerce,  and  the  implements  of  death  be  beaten  into 
the  implements  of  life.  '  Nation  will  not  lift  up  sword 
against  nation  ;  neither  will  they  learn  war  any  more.'  " 

But  the  author  thus  quoted  is  not  the  only  writer 
who  bears  testimony  to  the  great  mission  of  woman,  the 
daughter  of  the  Lord  Almighty.  Mrs.  Sarah  J.  Hale,  in 
her  admirable  book,  "Woman's  Record,"  says,  "Woman 
is  God's  appointed  agent  of  morality,  the  teacher  and 
inspirer  of  those  feelings  and  sentiments  which  are 
termed  the  virtues  of  humanity ;  and  the  progress  of 
these  virtues,  and  the  permanent  improvement  of  our 
race,  depend  on  the  manner  in  which  her  mission  is 
treated  by  man." 

As  far  back  in  human  tradition  or  history  as  the 
Garden  of  Eden,  we  find  that  the  mother  spirit  of  that 
era  had  the  acknowledgment  of  her  woman's  mission 
in  the  glorious  promise  that  "  the  seed  of  the  woman 
should  bruise  the  serpent's  he?,d."  Tracing  the  path 
of  Scripture  record,  we  find  the  <yomen  of  Israel  often 
the  chosen  instruments  of  God  to  teach  and  to  exhort 
that  people.  Deborah,  the  prophetess  and  judge, 
selected  for  herself  the  sweet  and  tender  title  of 
"  Mother  in  Israel."  Beautiful  in  character,  noble  in 
life,  "  her  genius  was  superior  to  any  recorded  in  the 
history  of  the  Hebrews,  from  Moses  to  David,  an  inter- 
val of  more  than  four  hundred  years ;  and  scriptural 
commentators  have  remarked  that  Deborah  alone,  of 
all  the  rulers  of  Israel,  has  escaped  unreproved  by  the 
prophets  and  inspired  historians."  *  Of  the  familial 

1  Mrs.  Hole's  Woman's  Record. 


PRELIMINARY.  25 

triumphal  ode  composed  by  this  remarkable  woman  of 
Israel,  Milman  says,  "  Lyric  poetry  has  nothing  in 
any  language,  which  can  surpass  the  boldness  and 
animation  of  this  striking  production.  This  hymn  has 
great  historic  as  well  as  poetic  value." 

Other  women  of  Israel  were  notable,  and  exercised 
good  and  wide  influence  in  their  day.  We  call  to  mind 
Abigail,  the  wise  wife  of  the  foolish  Nabal ;  Esther,  the 
fair  queen  of  Ahasuerus ;  Huldah,  the  inspired  prophet- 
ess ;  Miriam,  the  prophet-sister  of  Moses  and  Aaron ; 
Naomi  the  model  mother-in-law,  and  Ruth  her  model 
daughter-in-law ;  besides  Sarah,  Rebekah,  Rachel,  Leah, 
Judith,  and  others  whose  deeds  have  given  them  prom- 
inence on  the  historic  page.  To  those  who  would  pur- 
sue the  study  of  their  lives  and  influence  may  be 
commended  Grace  Aguilar's  characteristic  book,  "  Wom- 
en of  Israel." 

The  women  of  Pagan  Greece  and  Rome  were  not 
altogether  unworthy  of  praise.  Indeed,  the  names  of 
some  who  dwelt  in  classic  lands  are  the  synonyms  of 
graces  and  virtues  that  may  well  be  imitated  in  a  later 
age.  The  wifely  virtues  of  Lucretia,  and  the  motherly 
excellence  of  Cornelia, —  "mater  Grracchorum,"  —  are 
commended  in  all  lands. 

Greece  and  Rome  had  their  great  orators  among  their 
men ;  but  Aspasia,  Cornelia,  Hortensia,  and  others,  might 
be  mentioned  as  showing  the  genius  and  eloquence  of 
their  women  also.  Cicero  said  of  Cornelia,  who  gave 
public  lectures  on  philosophy  in  Rome,  "  Cornelia,  had 
she  not  been  a  woman,  would  have  deserved  the  first 
place  among  philosophers."  Aspasia's  fame  brightens 
with  the  lapse  of  centuries  ;  and  the  aspersions  of  Aris- 
tophanes fail  to  dim  its  lustre,  when  it  is  remembered 
that  she  wa«-  the  friend  of  Pericles,  and  the  teacher  of 
Socrates. 


26  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

Among  the  Greeks,  women  as  well  as  men  were  ad« 
rnitted  to  the  sacred  functions  of  the  priesthood,  and 
the  priestesses  were  usually  unmarried.  These  Athen- 
ian virgins  were  "  chosen  from  the  most  noble  families, 
and  carried  the  distinctive  emblems  of  the  deity  to 
whose  science  they  were  devoted.  Those  of  Minerva 
were  clad  in  the  armor  of  that  goddess,  with  the  cegis, 
the  cuirass,  and  the  helmet ;  the  priestess  of  Ceres  car- 
ried in  her  hand  a  small  sheaf  of  corn." * 

The  women  of  Sparta  are  always  mentioned  as  hero- 
ines :  they  were  educated  with  their  brothers,  and  were 
accustomed  to  hardships,  and  the  greatest  virtue  they 
cultivated  was  that  of  patriotism. 

The  soldier  of  Sparta  was  exceptionally  brave,  be- 
cause he  had  an  heroic  mother  as  well  as  a  fearless  father. 
A  Spartan  mother,  as  history  assures  us,  when  reaching 
his  shield  to  a  son  as  he  was  about  to  depart  for  the 
field  of  deadly  strife,  said  to  him,  in  words  that  have 
become  familiar  to  all  as  translated  from  the  language 
of  Sparta,  "  With  it  or  upon  it ; "  that  is,  "  Return  as  a 
conqueror  or  a  corpse,"  for  death  was  preferable  to  cow- 
ardice. And  on  another  occasion,  a  Spartan  mother 
said  to  her  son,  who  complained  that  his  Lword  was  too 
short,  "  Add  a  step  to  it ; "  in  other  words,  "  Be  brave 
enough  to  get  so  much  nearer  to  the  enemy,  and  let 
courage  and  skill  decide  in  the  contest." 

"  After  the  disastrous  battle  of  Leucreta,  in  which 
the  Spartans  had  been'  conquered,  in  a  manner  most 
honorable  to  their  own  courage  and  discipline,  by  the 
superior  genius  and  the  novel  tactics  of  Epaminondas, 
many  of  the  vanquished,  rather  than  foolishly  waste 
their  lives,  violated  the  military  rules ;  but,  when  they 
returned  to  their  homes,  the  women  would  accept  no 

1  Cleveland's  Antiquities. 


PBELIMINAEY.  27 

explanations.  The  wives  and  mothers  of  those  who 
had  died  on  the  field  acted  as  if  they  were  celebrating 
a  triumph ;  while  the  others  lamented  their  humiliation, 
and  were  ashamed  to  show  themselves  on  the  streets. 
A  Spartan  mother  met  a  messenger  from  the  "war,  and 
asked  him  how  the  battle  went.  He  said,  '  I  have  sad 
news  for  you ;  your  son  was  slain.'  — 'Fool,'  she  replied, 
*  I  want  news  of  the  battle.' 

"  Such  a  speech  by  a  mother  in  any  other  country 
would  be,  or  would  have  been  regarded  as,  insincere,  or 
as  an  indication  of  an  exceptional  character ;  but  not  in 
Sparta."  l  Exceptional  as  it  may  seem,  the  women  of 
our  land,  during  our  first  century,  showed  a  Spartan  hero- 
ism often,  both  during  the  Revolution  and  the  civil  war. 
One  mother  in  the  town  of  Waltham,  Mass.,  received  the 
news  of  her  son's  death  in  battle  in  1861,  but  kept 
calmly  on  with  her  work  for  other  soldiers,  not  even 
laying  down  the  scissors  with  which  she  was  at  that 
time  cutting  out  shirts  for  the  Sanitary  Commission 
ladies  around  her  to  sew. 

There  may  be  those  who  think  that  culture  alone  has  '' 
helped  woman  to  her  present  place  of  freedom  and  in- 1 
fluence.  But,  while  allowing  culture  to  be  a  mighty 
lever  in  uplifting  humanity,  Christianity  must  be  re- 
garded as  the  greatest  force  in  the  elevation  of  woman 
in  every  age  and  nation.  The  author  of  "  Women  of 
Christianity  "  reminds  us  that  "  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel  is  an  era  in  the  modern  world.  If  we  would 
know  what  it  did  for  woman,  we  need  only  compaie 
the  earliest  Christian  women  with  those  of  the  ancients 
in  their  purest  days.  No  doubt  there  were  many  noble 
women  before  the  word  of  Christ  was  known  or  ac- 
knowledged in  Europe,  —  women  of  lofty  intellect  and 

1  HittelTs  History  of  Culture,  p.  102. 


28  "WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUEY. 

high  character,  accomplished  Greeks  and  rigid  Romans, 
fit  to  rule  with  Pericles,  or  worthy  to  suffer  with  Brutus. 
But  the  difference  is  clear  and  striking :  there  was  no 
Dorcas. 

"  There  could  not  have  been  one :  the  virtues  of  Dorcas 
were  not  those  which  formed  the  Pagan  ideal ;  and,  at 
the  time  when  she  lived,  that  ideal  was  already  a  thing 
of  the  past.  When  the  first  dawn  of  Christianity  ap- 
peared, the  faith  of  the  ancients  had  been  failing  them 
for  several  ages.  Epicurism,  superstition,  and  a  moral 
depravity  too  deep  to  bear  record,  held  sway  over  the 
subjects  of  the  wide  empire  ;  until  suddenly  a  secret 
murmur,  welcome  as  the  glad  tidings  of  liberty  to  the 
fallen,  arose  and  spread  from  Jerusalem  to  Rome. 

"  To  the  capricious  tyranny  of  the  emperors,  to  the 
slavery  of  thousands  of  human  beings,  to  the  subjec- 
tion of  many  nations  to  one  nation,  Christianity  opposed 
the  equality  of  all  before  God,  the  spiritual  freedom  of 
which  no  bonds  can  deprive  the  soul,  and  the  universal 
brotherhood  of  men.  The  evils  were  not  removed,  but 
the  principles  by  which  they  were  to  perish  had  awak- 
ened. The  '  good  tidings  '  were  told  to  the  lowly  and 
the  great,  to  the  oppressed  and  the  free,  in  the  market- 
place and  by  the  household  hearth.  There  they  reached 
woman,  — woman,  alternately  the  toy  or  drudge  of  man, 
whom  only  birth,  beauty,  or  genius  could  raise  to 
equalifc.  ;  who,  to  be  something,  must  be  the  daughter, 
wife,  or  mother  of  an  illustrious  citizen,  and  who 
seemed  destined  never  to  know  the  moral  dignity  of 
individual  worth. 

"  Christianity  at  first  appeared  to  change  little  in  the 
condition  of  woman.  It  told  them  in  austere  precepts 
to  obey  their  husbands,  to  dwell  at  home,  to  mind 
household  duties,  and  to  leave  the  great  aims  of  life 


PEELIMINAEY.  29 

to  man  ;  and  yet  it  proved  the  charter  of  their  liberty. 
We  must  not  ascribe  this  fact  to  the  widows,  virgins, 
and  deaconesses  of  the  early  Church,  important  as  was 
the  part  they  acted.  Had  not  the  Pagan  creed  its  ves- 
tals, priestesses,  and  prophetic  sibyls  ?  Not  there  lay 
the  difference.  Christianity  freed  woman,  because  it 
opened  to  her  the  long-closed  world  of  spiritual  knowl- 
edge. Sublime  and  speculative  theories,  hitherto  con- 
fined to  the  few,  became,  when  once  they  were  quick- 
ened by  faith,  things  for  which  thousands  were  eager  to 
die.  Simple  women  meditated  in  their  homes  on  ques- 
tions which  had  long  troubled  philosophers  in  the  groves 
of  Academia.  They  knew  this  well.  They  felt  that 
from  her  who  had  sat  at  the  feet  of  the  Master,  listen- 
ing to  the  divine  teaching,  down  to  the  poorest  slave 
who  heard  the  tidings  of  spiritual  liberty,  they  had  all 
become  daughters  of  a  great  and  immortal  faith.  Of 
that  faith,  they  were  the  earliest  adherents,  disciples, 
and  martyrs.  Women  followed  Jesus,  entertained  the 
wandering  apostles,  worshipped  in  the  catacombs,  or 
died  in  the  arena.  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  bears 
record  to  the  charity  of  Dorcas,  and  the  hospitality  of 
Lydia ;  and  tradition  has  preserved  the  memory  of 
Praxedes  and  Pudentiana,  daughters  of  a  Roman  sena- 
tor, in  whose  house  the  earliest  Christian  meetings  were 
held  at  Rome.  The  wealth  of  the  two  virgins  went  to 
relieve  the  church  and  the  poor.  United  in  their  lives 
and  in  their  charity,  they  were  not  divided  in  death : 
they  were  buried  side  by  side  on  the  Salarian  Road. 
The  Church  of  St.  Pudentiana,  erected  on  the  spot 
where  the  palace  of  their  father  once  stood,  is  held  to 
be  the  most  ancient  in  existence. 

"  Many  of  those  early  Christian  women  won  the  crown 
of  martyrdom.     They  were  now  beings  with  immortal 


30  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

souls :  they  suffered  as  such  both  worthily  and  willingly. 
The  Elysium  of  the  ancients  was  the  home  of  heroes  : 
the  heaven  of  the  Christian  was  opened  to  the  meanest 
slave.  The  new  faith  showed  no  favor  of  sex  in  its 
rewards  ;  and  the  old,  as  if  knowing  this,  made  no  ex- 
ception in  its  cruelty.  From  the  days  when  Nero  raised 
the  first  general  persecution  against  Ihe  Church,  and  lit 
up  the  evening  sky  of  Rome  with  the  fires  in  which 
Christians  were  slowly  consumed,  women  shared  all  the 
torments  and  heroism  of  the  martyrs.  ...  It  showed 
very  forcibly  the  spirit  of  the  new  religion,  that  to 
women  was  chiefly  intrusted  the  practice  of  its  purity 
and  charity,  in  their  severest  and  most  extensive 
meaning."  l 

Wherever  the  principles  of  true  Christianity  prevail, 
in  any  country,  either  with  tribes  or  individuals,  there 
is  seen  the  progress  of  culture,  civilization,  and  the  con- 
dition of  woman.  Contrast  the  women  of  the  various 
parts  of  the  world  to-day,  and  the  condition  of  those  in 
Asia,  —  toys  or  serfs  as  they  are,  in  Africa  the  same,  — 
with  those  in  Europe  and  America,  who  are  taught  in 
the  principles  of  the  gospel,  and  live  under  some  flag 
which  protects  their  dearest  interests.  Asia  has  some 
bright  spots ;  but  the  very  mention  of  Hindostan,  China, 
Japan,  and  the  islands  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  brings  to 
mind  the  need  of  Christian  teachers,  and  the  self-deny- 
mg  labors  of  gospel  missionaries,  showing  at  once  the 
want  of  something  to  elevate  both  man  and  woman. 
Africa  has  only  here  and  there  a  spot  where  the  light 
of  the  truth  has  made  glad  human  hearts ;  and  many 
a  Christian  teacher  is  needed  to  follow  in  the  footsteps 
of  Mungo  Park  and  Livingstone,  of  Stanley  and  Bayard 
Taylor,  before  the  land  of  the  Nile  will  show  a  place  of 
culture  and  advancement  for  woman. 

»  Women  of  Christianity,  by  Julia  Kavanagh. 


PRELIMINABY.  31 

Europe,  with  its  marvellous  historit  and  classic  treas- 
ures, has  done  as  much  for  woman  as  the  form  of 
Christianity  which  prevails  over  by  far  the  larger  por- 
tion will  permit. 

It  is  reserved  for  America  to  show  to  the  world  the 
rarest  excellence  of  woman  in  the  exercise  of  the  largest 
and  truest  liberty  the  world  has  ever  known.  The  well- 
remembered  speech  of  Counsellor  Phillips,  so  familiar 
in  our  school-days  as  a  model  of  oratory,  given  us  by 
John  Pierpont,  preacher  and  poet,  in  the  "  National 
Reader,"  arises  to  the  mind ;  and  involuntarily  one  ex- 
claims, "Happy,  proud  America!  The  lightnings  of 
heaven  yielded  to  your  philosophy.  The  temptations 
of  earth  could  not  seduce  your  patriotism."  And  if  the 
speaker  has  noticed  the  condition  of  woman  in  America, 
compared  with  her  condition  in  any  other  portion  of  the 
world,  there  must  be  added,  "  Happy,  proud  America ! 
for  in  thee  woman  is  duly  exalted,  and  will  ultimately 
take  her  place  completely,  side  by  side  with  her  brother 
man,  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Lord  Almighty, 
to  bring  the  world  tc  knowledge  and  holiness,  to  wis- 
dom and  love."  Does  this  seem  arrogant  ?  Yet  it  is 
in  harmony  with  the  facts  of  history.  Other  nations 
have  done  well,  in  proportion  to  their  gospel  light ;  but 
"  thou  excellest  them  all."  Oh,  happy,  proud  America, 
whose  centennial  year  is  a  year  of  thanksgiving  and  joy ) 

"  The  United  States  of  North  America,"  says  Mrs. 
Hale,  "  is  the  land  of  modern  chivalry,  where  the  moral 
qualities  of  woman  are  most  highly  valued,  and  hex 
station  in  society  as  '  the  glory  of  the  man  '  most  fully 
acknowledged.  The  remarkable  effect  this  has  had  on 
the  destiny  of  the  nation  was  3omprehended  by  M.  de 
Tocqueville,  who  observed  the  result,  though  he  did 
not  analyze  the  process.  At  the  close  of  his  work  on 


32  WOMEN  OP  THE  CENTURY. 

America,  lie  remarks  that,  if  he  were  required  to  point 
out  the  cause  *of  the  wonderful  advance  in  prosperity 
and  civilization  of  the  American  people,  he  should  reply 
*  It  was  the  superior  character  of  their  women.'  "  l 

There  have  been  American  heroines  who  were  not 
properly  the  women  of  the  United  States,  whose  names 
have  been  honored,  and  whose  deeds  were  worthy  of 
that  honor.  If  Roman  matrons  are  mentioned,  Indian 
women  should  not  be  forgotten ;  for  the  aborigines  of 
America  had  something  to  do  with  the  early  history  of  a 
people  that  has  superseded  them,  besides  greeting  them 
with  the  tomahawk  or  the  pipe  of  peace.  One  Indian 
woman  is  held  in  honor,  —  Pocahontas,  the  daughter  of 
Powhatan,  the  Indian  chief  in  Virginia;  born  about 
1594,  and  dying  in  England  in  1617,  when  only  about 
twenty-three  years  of  age.  This  young,  heroic  child  of 
a  chieftain,  in  saving  the  life  of  Capt.  John  Smith, 
when,  as  he  was  about  to  be  slain  by  her  father's  club, 
she  sprang  before  him,  and  shielded  him  with  her  own 
body,  earned  for  herself  an  honorable  mention  in 
American  history.  She  married  a  brave  English  officer 
named  Rolfe ;  and  the  celebrated  John  Randolph  was 
one  of  her  descendants.  Very  beautifully  has  Mrs. 
Hale  remarked  concerning  her,  ."  Pocahontas  has  been 
the  heroine  of  fiction  and  of  song ;  but.  the  simple 
truth  of  her  story  is  more  interesting  than  any  ideal 
description.  She  is  a  proof  of  the  intuitive  moral 
sense  of  woman,  and  the  importance  of  her  aid  in 
carrying  forward  the  progress  of  human  improve- 
ment. 

"  Pocahontas  was  the  first  heathen  Who  became  con- 
verted to  Christianity  by  the  English  settlers.  The  reli- 
gion of  the  gospel  seemed  congenial  to  her  nature :  she 

1  "Woman's  Record,  note  to  General  Preface. 


33 

was  like  a  guardian  angel  to  the  white  strangers  who 
had  come  to  the  land  of  the  red  men.  I3y  her  the  races 
were  united,  thus  proving  the  unity  of  the  human 
family  through  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  woman,  ever, 
in  its  highest  development,  seeking  the  good,  and  at 
enmity  with  the  evil ;  the  preserver,  the  inspirer,  the 
exemplar,  of  the  noblest  virtues  of  humanity." l 

The  author  of  "  The  Conquest  of  Florida  "  gives  a 
graphic  story  of  four  Spaniards  who  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  Indians,  three  of  whom  were  shot;  and  the 
fourth,  named  Ortis,  was  only  saved  by  the  cacique's 
noble  daughter,  who  assisted  him  to  escape.  The  history 
of  the  settlement  of  our  country  reveals  many  such  noble 
instances  of  humanity  in  women,  though  the  women 
who  revealed  this  lovely  trait  were  but  illiterate  In- 
dians. Space  forbids  further  reference  to  any  of  th^"n 
at  this  time,  and  leaves  but  little  opportunity  for  men- 
tioning any  of  the  early  heroines  of  Colonial  days. 

Some  of  those  pioneer  women,  like  the  Widow  Storey, 
deserve  much  as  well  as  honorable  mention.  Her  hus- 
band being  killed  by  the  fall  of  a  tree,  she  went  from 
Connecticut  to  Salisbury,  Vt.,  with  her  ten  children,  to 
take  his  place,  and  preserve  and  clear  up  his  farm. 
'*  And  this  bold  resolution  she  carried  out  to  the  letter, 
in  spite  of  every  difficulty,  hardship,  and  danger  which 
for  years  constantly  beset  her  in  her  solitary  location  in 
the  woods.  Acre  after  acre  of  the  dense  and  dark  for- 
est melted  away  before  her  axe,  which  she  handled  with 
the  dexterity  of  the  most  experienced  chopper.  The 
logs  and  bushes  were  piled  and  burnt  by  her  own  strong 
and  untiring  hand:  crops  were  raised,  by  which,  with 
the  fruits  of  her  fishing  and  unerring  rifle,  she  supported 
herself  and  her  hardy  brood  of  children.  As  a  plane  of 

1  Woman's  Record,  p.  475. 


34  WOMEN  OF   THE   CENTUBY. 

refuge  from  the  assaults  of  Indians  or  dangerous  wild 
beasts,  she  dug  out  an  underground  room,  into  \vhich, 
through  a  small  entrance  made  to  open  under  an  over- 
hanging thicket  in  the  bank  of  the  stream,  she  nightly- 
retreated  with  her  children.  And  here  she  continued 
to  reside,  thus  living  and  thus  laboring  unassisted,  till 
by  her  own  hand  and  the  help  which  her  boys  soon 
began  to  afford  her,  she  cleared  up  a  valuable  farm,  and 
placed  herself  in  independent  circumstances  in  life."  1 

The  readers  of  Colonial  history  well  remember  the 
names  of  many  women  who  were  prominent  in  the 
higher  walks  of  life.  First  of  all  the  Pilgrim  Mothers 
will  be  remembered.  "  There  is  a  beautiful  tradition, 
that  the  first  foot  which  pressed  the  snow-clad  rock  of 
Plymouth  was  that  of  May  Chilton,  a  fair  young  maid- 
en ;  and  that  the  last  survivor  of  those  heroic  pioneers 
was  May  Allerton,  who  lived  to  see  the  planting  of 
twelve  out  of  the  thirteen  Colonies  which  formed  the 
nucleus  of  the  United  States.  In  '  The  Mayflower,' 
eighteen  wives  accompanied  their  husbands  to  a  waste 
land  and  uninhabited,  save  by  the  wily  and  vengeful 
savage.  On  the  unfloored  hut,  she  who  had  been  nur- 
tured amid  the  rich  carpets  and  curtains  of  the  mother- 
land rocked  her  new-born  babe,  and  complained  not. 
She  who  in  the  home  of  her  youth  had  arranged  the 
gorgeous  shades  of  embroidery,  or  perchance  had  com- 
pounded the  rich  venison  pasty  as  her  share  in  the 
housekeeping,  now  pounded  the  coarse  Indian  corn  for 
her  children's  bread,  and  bade  them  ask  God's  blessing 
ere  they  took  their  scanty  portions.  When  the  snows 
sifted  through  their  miserable  roof-trees  upon  her  little 
ones,  she  gathered  them  closer  to  her  bosom  ;  she  taught 
them  the  Bible  and  the  catechism,  and  the  holy  hymn, 

i  Noble  Deeds  of  American  Women,  by  J.  Clement,  p.  93. 


HANNAH   DUSTON   MASSACRE 


PRELIMINABY.  37 

though  the  war-whoop  of  the  Indian  rang  through  the 
wild.  Amid  the  untold  hardships  of  Colonial  life,  she 
infused  new  strength  into  her  husband  by  her  firmness, 
and  solaced  his  weary  hours  by  her  love." l 

The  names  of  the  Pilgrim  Mothers  are  many  of  them 
kept  in  memory  by  the  custom  of  naming  children  in 
like  manner;  and  their  virtues  have  descended  with 
their  names.  The  list  is  too  long  to  place  here,  but  it 
would  blaze  with  the  glory  of  their  spotless  fame. 
While  the  nation  honors  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  let  it  not 
fail  to  give  due  reverence  to  the  memory  of  the  Pilgrim 
Mothers. 

Only  four  more  women  who  dwelt  in  our  land  pre- 
vious to  the  first  United  States  century  will  be  men- 
tioned here.  First,  Phillis  Wheatley,  who  was  brought 
from  Africa  to  Boston,  Mass.,  in  1761,  when  but  six 
years  old,  and  who  wrote  a  volume  of  poems  which 
was  published  in  London  in  1773,  while  she  was  in 
that  city  with  the  son  of  her  owner,  —  for  she  was  a 
slave.  She  was  educated  through  the  favor  of  her 
mistress,  and  was  quite  a  proficient  in  the  Latin  lan- 
guage. A  poem  which  she  sent  to  Gen.  Washing- 
ton gave  her  enduring  fame.  Her  life  bore  evidence 
that  the  Colonial  women,  though  some  of  them  slave- 
holders, were  not  destitute  of  a  lively  interest  hi  those 
the  custom  of  the  times  placed  whoUy  in  their  charge. 
Phillis  herself  is  a  proof  that  even  African  women, 
despised  as  they  have  been,  have  intellectual  endow- 
ments, and,  with  culture  and  Christian  attainment,  may 
rival  their  fairer  sisters  in  the  expression  of  high 
thoughts  in  poetic  phrase. 

The  second  woman  to  be  mentioned  here  is  Hannah 

1  Mrs.  Lydia  H.  Sigourney,  In  her  Introduction  to  Noble  Deeds  of 
American  Women. 


462385 


38  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTTJRY. 

Duston,  to  whom  a  suitable  monument  has  been  erected 
on  Contoocook  Island,  in  the  city  of  Concord,  N.H. 
She  was  one  of  those,  brave,  heroic,  Spartan-like  women 
of  Colonial  times,  who  preferred  to  kill  her  captors  to 
dwelling  in  Indian  slavery. 

When  the  Indians  captured  Mrs.  Duston,  her  nurse 
Mrs.  Mary  Neff,  and  babe  only  a  week  old,  one  might 
have  been  pardoned  for  predicting  death  to  the  mother 
of  so  young  a  child,  marched  into  the  wilderness  for 
several  days,  her  soul  agonized  with  the  thought  of 
leaving  her  husband  and  seven  children  far  behind 
her  with  scarce  any  hope  of  seeing  them  again;  but 
the  mother's  heart  was  brave  and  determined.  "At 
night,"  says  Bancroft  the  historian,  "  while  the  house- 
hold slumbers,  the  captives  each  with  a  tomahawk 
strike  vigorously  and  fleetly,  and  with  a  division  of 
labor ;  and,  of  the  twelve  sleepers,  ten  lie  dead.  Of  one 
squaw  the.  wound  was  not  mortal;  one  child  was 
spared  from  design.  The  love  of  glory  next  asserted 
its  power ;  and  the  gun  and  tomahawk  of  the  mur- 
derer of  her  infant,  and  a  bag  heaped  full  of  scalps, 
were  choicely  kept  as  trophies  of  the  heroine.  The 
streams  are  the  guides  which  God  has  set  for  the 
stranger  in  the  wilderness  :  in  a  bark  canoe,  the  three 
descend  the  Merrimac  to  the  English  settlements, 
astonishing  their  friends  by  their  escape,  and  filling  the 
land  with  wonder  at  their  successful  daring." 

Mercy  Warren  is  next  mentioned  as  one  of  the  first 
American  women  poets,  and  as  a  historian  who  holds 
high  place  among  the  American  writers  of  her  day. 
She  was  the  daughter  of  Col.  James  Otis,  was  born  in 
1728,  and  married  James  Warren,  a  merchant  of  Plym- 
outh. She  died  in  1814,  at  the  age  of  eighty-seven. 
Her  writings  were  published  in  1805,  under  the  title 


HANNAH  DUSTON   MONUMENT, 

ERECTED  ON  CONTOOCOOK.  ISLAND,  THROUGH  THE  EFFORTS  OF  COL.  ROBERT 
B.  CAVERLY.  POET  AND  HISTORIAN. 


PBELZMINAEY.  41 

of  "The  History  of  the  Rise,  Progi ess,  and  Termina- 
tion of  the  American  Revolution,  interspersed  with 
Biographical,  Political,  and  Moral  Observations,"  in 
three  volumes.  Though  born  previous  to  the  first 
United  States  century,  she  was  in  the  prime  of  life 
when  the  Revolution  occurred ;  and  of  course  the  rest 
of  her  career  and  her  fame  as  an  historical  writer  belong 
to  the  first  century  of  American  independence.  Simi- 
lar statements  might  be  made  concerning  many  other 
women  who  were  born  too  soon  to  be  numbered  with 
the  women  of  the  first  century,  but  not  too  early  or  too 
late  to  take  some  part  in  its  heroic  deeds,  or  to  have 
great  and  good  influence  on  the  times  which  followed 
them.  The  spirit  of  such  women  may  be  discerned 
from  the  only  stanza  taken  from  Mrs.  Warren's  poem, 
'v  The  Lady  of  Castile,"  which  will  here  be  given:  — 

"THE  COURAGE  OF  VIRTUE. 

"  A  soul  inspired  by  freedom's  genial  warmth 
Expands,  grows  firm,  and  by  resistance  strong  : 
The  most  successful  prince  that  offers  life, 
And  bids  me  live  upon  ignoble  terms, 
-  Shall  learn  from  me  that  virtue  seldom  fears. 
Death  kindly  opes  a  thousand  friendly  gates, 
And  Freedom  waits  to  guard  her  votaries  through." 

"  Last,  but  not  least,"  is  penned  the  name  of  Mary 
Washington,  the  mother  of  "  the  Father  of  his  Coun- 
try." Is  she  not,  then,  the  grandmother  of  our  fair  Re- 
public ?  Surely  she  claims  distinction  among  the  women 
of  America.  Industrious,  economical,  charitable,  pious, 
she  trained  her  son  in  a  noble  simplicity,  and  was  best 
pleased  when  she  saw  him  good,  rather  than  when  she 
saw  him  great.  Her  home  was  on  the  banks  of  the 
Potomac,  since  more  widely  historic  ;  and  her  history 


42  WOMAN  OF  THE   CBNTUEY. 

is  so  woven  with,  that  of  her  son,  that  to  know  of 
George  Washington  is  to  know  also  of  his  mother. 
Since  both  son  and  mother  were  prominent  in  the  first 
portion  of  our  country's  first  century,  a  few  paragraphs 
may  be  here  devoted  to  one  so  worthy  both  in  charac- 
ter and  social  position.  George  W.  P.  Custis  gives  a 
vivid  portraiture  of  noble  qualities  in  this  justly 
revered  woman.  Thus  he  describes  her  grand  simplicity 
of  manners :  "  After  an  absence  of  nearly  seven  years, 
it  was  at  length,  on  the  return  of  the  combined  armies 
from  Yorktown,  permitted  to  the  mother  again  to  see 
and  embrace  her  illustrious  son.  So  soon  as  he  had 
dismounted,  in  the  midst  of  a  numerous  and  brilliant 
suite,  he  sent  to  apprise  her  of  his  arrival,  and  to  know 
when  it  would  be  her  pleasure  to  receive  him.  And 
now  mark  the  force  of  early  education  and  habits,  and 
the  superiority  of  the  Spartan  over  the  Persian  school, 
in  this  interview  of  the  great  Washington  with  his 
admirable  parent  and  instructor.  No  pageantry  of  war 
proclaimed  his  coming,  no  trumpets  sounded,  no  ban- 
ners waved.  Alone  and  on  foot,  the  marshal  of 
France,  the  general-in-chief  of  the  combined  armies  of 
France  and  America,  the  deliverer  of  his  country,  the 
hero  of  the  age,  repaired  to  pay  his  humble  duty  to  her 
whom  he  venerated  as  the  author  of  his  being,  the 
founder  of  his  fortune  and  his  fame.  For  full  well  he 
knew  that  the  matron  would  not  be  moved  by  all  the 
pride  that  glory  ever  gave,  nor  by  all  the  *  pomp  and 
circumstance '  of  power. 

"  The  lady  was  alone,  her  aged  hands  employed  in  the 
works  of  domestic  industry,  when  the  good  news  was 
announced;  and  it  was  further  told  that  the  victor 
chief  was  in  waiting  at  the  threshold.  She  welcomed 
him  with  a  warm  embrace,  and  by  the  well-remembered 


PRELIMINARY.  43 

and  endearing  name  of  his  childhood,  inquiring  as  to 
his  health ;  she  remarked  the  lines  which  mighty  cares 
and  manj7  trials  had  made  on  his  manly  countenance, 
spoke  much  of  old  times  and  old  friends,  but  of  his 
glory  —  not  one  word  ! 

"  Meantime  in  the  village  of  Fredericksburg  all  was 
joy  and  revelry.  The  town  was  crowded  with  the  offi- 
cers of  the  French  and  American  armies,  and  with 
gentlemen  from  all  the  country  around,  who  hastened 
to  welcome  the  conquerors  of  Cornwallis.  The  citizens 
made  arrangements  for  a  splendid  ball,  to  which  the 
mother  of  Washington  was  specially  invited.  She  ch- 
served,  that,  although  her  dancing  days  were  pretty  well 
over,  she  should  feel  happy  in  contributing  to  the  gene- 
ral festivity,  and  consented  to  attend. 

"  The  foreign  officers  were  anxious  to  see  the  mother 
of  their  chief.  They  had  heard  indistinct  rumors  re- 
specting her  remarkable  life  and  character ;  but,  form- 
ing their  judgments  from  European  examples,  they 
were  prepared  to  expect  in  the  mother  that  glare  and 
show  which  would  have  been  attached  to  the  parents 
of  the  great  in  the  Old  World.  How  were  they  sur- 
prised when  the  matron,  leaning  on  the  aim  of  her  son, 
entered  the  room  !  She  was  arrayed  in  the  very  plain 
yet  becoming  garb  worn  by  the  Virginia  lady  of  the 
olden  time.  Her  address,  always  dignified  and  impos- 
ing, was  courteous  though  reserved.  She  received  the 
complimentary  attentions  which  were  profusely  paid 
her,  without  evincing  the  slightest  elevation ;  and  at  an 
early  hour,  wishing  the  company  much  enjoyment  of 
their  pleasures,  observing  that  it  was  time  for  old 
people  to  be  at  home,  retired. 

"  The  foreign  officers  were  amazed  to  behold  one 
whom  so  many  causes  contributed  to  elevate,  preserving 


44  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

the  even  tenor  of  her  life,  while  such  a  blaze  of  glory 
shone  upon  her  name  and  offspring.  The  European 
world  furnished  no  examples  of  such  magnanimity. 
Names  of  ancient  lore  were  heard  to  escape  from  their 
lips ;  and  they  observed  that,  '  if  such  were  the  matrons 
of  America,  it  was  not  wonderful  the  sons  were  illus- 
trious " 

Mary  Washington  died  at  the  age  of  eighty-seven, 
soon  after  the  death  of  her  illustrious  son.  Mrs.  Hale 
states  that  "  On  the  7th  of  May,  1833,  at  Fredericks- 
burg,  the  corner-stone  of  her  monument  was  laid  by 
Andrew  Jackson,  then  the  president  of  the  United 
States."  He  closed  his  remarks  with  these  words: 
"  Fellow-citizens,  at  your  request,  and  in  your  name, 
I  now  deposit  this  plate  in  the  spot  destined  for  it ;  and 
when  the  American  pilgrim  shall,  in  after  ages,  come 
up  to  this  high  and  holy  place,  and  lay  his  hand  upon 
this  sacred  column,  may  he  recall  the  virtues  of  her 
who  sleeps  beneath,  and  depart  with  his  affections 
purified,  and  his  piety  strengthened,  while  he  invokes 
blessings  upon  the  mother  of  Washington!"  This 
monument  bears  the  simple  but  touching  inscription, 
"  Mary,  the  mother  of  Washington."  . 

These  preliminary  statements,  though  far  more  brief 
and  imperfect  than  the  women  of  worth  who  lived  pre- 
vious to  the  first  United  States  century  deserved,  have, 
it  is  hoped,  opened  the  way  very  properly  for  the  men- 
tion of  noble,  useful,  excellent,  and  famous  Women  of 
the  Century. 


CHAPTER  II. 


WOMEN   OF   THE   REVOLUTION. 

Declaration  of  Independence  —  How  and  when  made  first  by  a 
Woman,  Abigail  Adams  —  A  Philadelphia  Woman's  Letter  — 
Deborah  Franklin  —  Elizabeth,  Grace,  and  Rachel  Martin  —  Deb- 
orah Samson  —  Mother  Bailey  —  Heroism  of  Schoharie  Women  — 
Anne  Fitzhugh  —  Moll  Pitcher  —  The  Country  Girl  —  The  Women's 
League  — Esther  Reed  — Lydia  Darrah  —  Groton  Women,  &c. 

"  Read  the  fresh  annals  of  our  land  :  the  gathering  dust  of  time 
Nor  yet  has  fallen  on  the  scroll  to  dim  the  tale  sublime ; 
There  woman's  glory  proudly  shines,  for  willingly  she  gave 
Her  costliest  offerings  to  uphold  the  generous  and  the  brave 
Who  fought  her  country's  battles  well ;  and  oft  she  perilled  life 
To  save  a  father,  brother,  friend,  in  those  dark  years  of  strife. 
Whatever  strong-armed  man  hath  wrought,  whatever  he  hath  won, 
That  goal  hath  woman  also  reached,  that  action  hath  she  done." 

MARY  M.  CHASE. 

"  The  Lord  shall  sell  Sisera  into  the  hands  of  a  woman."  —  JUDG.  iv.  9. 

E  days  of  Colonial  dependence  in  America  were 
numbered,  and  came  to  an  end.  The  British  gov- 
ernmental officials  were  weighed  in  the  balances  of 
justice  and  humanity,  and  found  wanting.  "  Taxation 


46  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

without  representation  "  then  as  now  was  regarded  as 
iniquitous,  and  to  be  frowned  upon  and  disallowed. 
Finally  there  came  an  appeal  to  arms  in  defence  of  a 
righteous  freedom.  The  bell  of  liberty  rang  out  upon 
the  air  of  the  New  World,  and  the  first  century  of 
American  freedom  began.  It  should  never  be  forgotten 
by  the  children  of  Revolutionary  sires,  that  there  were 
forernothers,  as  well  as  forefathers,  who  should  be  hon- 
ored. There  were  noble  women  as  well  as  brave  men 
of  the  Revolution,  who  should  receive  due  recognition 
from  posterity,  and  a  generous  meed  of  praise. 

It  should  be  well  remembered,  that  when  the  abso- 
lute authority  of  an  unjust  parliament  and  a  tyrannical 
king  was  asserted  and  re-asserted,  to  the  annoyance 
and  oppression  of  the  people  in  America,  in  response 
to  the  proclamation  for  suppressing  rebellion  and  sedi- 
tion, as  the  remonstrances  of  our  forefathers  were 
termed,  a  woman — ABIGAIL  ADAMS  —  in  Massachu- 
setts, wrote  thus  in  a  letter  to  her  husband,  John 
Adams,  at  Philadelphia  :  — 

"  This  intelligence  will  make  a  plain  path  for  you, 
though  a  dangerous  one.  I  could  not  join  to-day  in 
the  petitions  of  our  worthy  pastor  for  a  reconciliation 
between  our  no  longer  parent  state,  but  tyrant  state, 
and  these  Colonies.  Let  us  separate :  they  are  un- 
worthy to  be  our  brethren.  Let  us  renounce  them; 
and  instead  of  supplications,  as  formerly,  for  their 
prosperity  and  happiness,  let  us  beseech  the  Almighty 
to  blast  their  counsels,  and  to  bring  to  nought  all  their] 
devices." 

Said  "  The  New  York  Tribune  "  in  July,  1875,  com- 
menting on  the  above,  "Here  was  a  declaration  of 
independence,  preceding  by  seven  months  that  which 
has  become  so  famous ;  and  it  was  signed  ly  a  woman"'' 


WOMEN   OF  THE  BEVOLUTION.  47 

There  is  ample  evidence  of  the  sympathy  which  the 
women  of  those  early  days  of  our  nation's  history  felt 
with  the  efforts  of  their  countrymen  to  rid  themselves 
of  a  foreign  yoke.  One  woman,  addressing  a  British 
officer  in  Boston,  wrote  from  Philadelphia  as  follows : 
"  I  have  retrenched  every  superfluous  expense  in  my 
table  and  family.  Tea  I  have  not  drunk  since  last 
Christinas,  nor  bought  a  new  cap  or  gown  since  your 
defeat  at  Lexington ;  and,  what  I  never  did  before,  have 
learned  to  knit,  and  am  now  making  stockings  of  wool 
for  my  servants ;  and  this  way  do  I  throw  in  my  mite 
to  the  public  good.  I  know  this,  that  as  free  I  can  die 
but  once ;  but  as  a  slave  I  shall  not  be  worthy  of  life. 
I  have  the  pleasure  to  assure  you  that  these  are  the 
sentiments  of  all  my  sister  Americans.  They  have 
sacrificed  assemblies,  parties  of  pleasure,  tea-drinking, 
and  finery,  to  that  great  spirit  of  patriotism  that  actu- 
ates all  degrees  of  people  throughout  this  extensive 
continent." 

An  address,  expressive  of  the  sentiments  of  the 
women  of  the  new  nation  towards  their  brave  defenders, 
was  widely  circulated  in  the  land,  and  read  in  the 
churches  of  Virginia.  "  We  know,"  it  said,  "  that  at 
a  distance  from  the  theatre  of  war,  if  we  enjoy  any 
tranquillity,  it  is  the  fruit  of  your  watchings,  your 
labors,  your  dangers.  And  shall  we  hesitate  to  evince 
to  you  our  gratitude  ?  Shall  we  hesitate  to  wear  cloth- 
ing more  simple,  and  dress  less  elegant,  while,  at  the 
price  of  this  small  privation,  we  shall  deserve  your 
benedictions  ?  " 

Mrs.  E.  F.  Ellet,  in  her  three  volumes  of  great  value, 
detailing  the  high  sentiments  and  heroic  deeds  of  the 
women  of  the  Revolution,  declares  that  "  the  noble 
deeds  in  which  this  irrepressible  spirit  breathed  itself 


48  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

were  not  unrewarded  by  persecution.  The  case  of  the 
Quakeress  DEBORAH  FRANKLIN",  who  was  banished 
from  New  York  by  the  British  commandant  for  her 
liberality  in  relieving  the  sufferings  of  the  American 
prisoners,  was  one  among  many.  In  our  days  of  tran- 
quillity and  luxury,  imagination  can  scarcely  compass 
the  extent  or  severity  of  the  trials  endured;  and  it 
is  proportionately  difficult  to  estimate  the  magnanimity 
that  bore  all,  not  only  with  uncomplaining  patience, 
but  with  a  cheerful  forgetfulness  of  suffering  in  view 
of  the  desired  object.  The  alarms  of  war,  the  roar  of 
the  strife  itself,  could  not  silence  the  voice  of  woman 
lifted  in  encouragement  or  prayer.  The  horrors  of 
battle  or  massacre  could  not  drive  her  from  the  post 
of  duty.  The  effect  of  this  devotion  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned, though  it  may  not  now  be  traced  in  particular 
instances.  These  were,  for  the  most  part,  known  only 
to  those  who  were  themselves  actors  in  the  scenes,  or 
who  lived  in  the  midst  of  them.  The  heroism  of  the 
Revolutionary  women  has  passed  from  remembrance 
with  the  generation  who  witnessed  it,  or  is  seen  only 
by  faint  and  occasional  glimpses  through  the  gathering 
obscurity  of  tradition."  l 

But  some  knowledge  of  these  noble  women  of  the 
century  is  given  us  by  Mrs.  Ellet,  and  also  in  a  smaller 
work* called  "Noble  Deeds  of  American  Women,"  by 
Jesse  Clement. 

Three  women  bearing  the  name  of  Martin  deserve 
to  be  remembered.  The  elder,  ELIZABETH  MARTIN, 
bore  the  same  relation  to  the  two  younger,  Grace  and 
Rachel,  that  Naomi  did  to  Ruth  and  Orpah.  Her  sons 
were  in  the  Revolutionary  ranks,  —  seven  of  them,  —  to 
whom  she  said  as  they  went,  with  the  spirit  of  Sparta, 

1  Women  of  the  Revolution,  vol.  1.  p.  21. 


WOMEN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  49 

"  Go,  boys,  and  fight  for  your  country.  Fight  tiL 
death,  if  you  must ;  but  never  let  your  country  be  dis 
honored.  Were  I  a  man  I  would  go  with  you." 

When  a  British  officer,  learning  that  she  had  seven 
sons  in  the  army,  sneeringly  said  she  had  enough,  she 
replied  that  she  wished  she  had  fifty  there. 

When  another  British  officer  heartlessly  told  her  he 
saw  her  son's  brains  blown  out  on  the  field  of  battle, 
she  calmly  replied,  "  He  could  not  have  died  in  a 
nobler  cause." 

"  When  Charleston  was  besieged,  she  had  three  sons 
in  the  place.  She  heard  the  report  of  cannon  on  the 
occasion,  though  nearly  a  hundred  miles  west  of  the 
besieged  city.  The  wives  of  the  sons  were  with  her, 
and  manifested  great  uneasiness  while  listening  to  the 
reports ;  nor  could  the  mother  control  her  feelings  any 
better.  While  they  were  indulging  in  silent  and,  as 
we  may  suppose,  painful  reflections,  the  mother  sud- 
denly broke  the  silence  by  exclaiming,  as  she  raised 
her  hands,  '  Thank  God !  they  are  the  children  of  the 
Republic ! "' l 

That  there  was  courage  in  RACHEL  and  GRACE 
MARTIN,  was  evinced  in  their  capture  of  important 
despatches,  when,  disguised  as  two  rebels,  they  as- 
sailed the  British  courier  and  his  guard,  took  the 
papers,  which  they  speedily  forwarded  to  Gen.  Greene, 
and  released  the  messenger  and  the  two  officers  who 
were  his  guard  on  parole,  while  they  had  not  the  least 
suspicion  that  tlieir  captors  were  women.  Boadicea, 
rushing  in  her  rude  chariot  over  the  battle-field,  while 
her  long  and  yellow  hair  was  streaming  in  the  wind, 
had  not  more  warlike  heroism  than  those  two  sisters 
who  risked  so  much  to  aid  their  country's  defenders. 

1  Noble  Deeds  of  American  Women,  p.  179. 


50  WOMEN   OF   THE  CENTURY. 

.  DEBORAH  SAMSON  of  Plymouth,  Mass.,  disguised 
herself,  and,  as  a  man  named  Robert  Shirtliffe,  served 
during  the  whole  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  with  the 
same  zeal  and  efficiency,  and  with  the  exposure  to 
hardship  and  fatigue,  endured  by  the  other  soldiers. 
She  was  wounded  twice  ;  but  her  secret  remained  un- 
discovered, till,  during  brain-fever,  her  sex  was  discov- 
ered by  the  physician,  who  then  chivalrously  took  her 
to  his  own  home.  "  When  her  health  was  restored, 
her  commanding  officer,  to  whom  the  physician  had 
revealed  his  discovery,  ordered  her  to  carry  a  letter  to 
Gen.  Washington.  Certain  now  of  a  fact  of  which 
she  had  before  been  doubtful,  that  her  sex  was  known, 
she  went  with  much  reluctance  to  fulfil  the  order. 
Washington,  after  reading  the  message  with  great  con- 
sideration, without  speaking  a  Word,  gave  her  her  dis- 
charge, together  with  a  note  containing  a  few  words 
of  advice,  and  some  money.  She  afterwards  married 
Benjamin  Gannett  of  Sharon,  Mass.  She  received  a 
pension,  with  a  grant  of  land,  for  her  services  as  a 
Revolutionary  soldier." l  Honorable  mention  of  this 
woman-soldier  is  made  in  Mies'  "  Principles  and  Acts 
of  the  Revolution." 

ANNA  WARNER,  the  wife  of  Capt.  Elijah  Bailey  of 
the  Revolutionary  army,  earned  the  title  of  "  The 
Heroine  of  Groton,"  by  her  devotion  to  the  cause  of 
freedom,  and  her  fearless  efforts  to  aid  the  wounded  on 
the  occasion  of  the  terrible  massacre  at  Fort  Griswold 
in  Connecticut.  When  the  blockading  fleet  in  1813 
appeared  off  the  harbor  of  New  London,  Conn.,  she  was 
among  the  patriotic  women  who  sacrificed  articles  of 
clothing  to  supply  flannel  for  cartridges.  The  editor 
of  "  The  Democratic  Review "  visited  her  in  1846, 

i  Mrs.  Bale's  Biography  of  Distinguished  Women,  p.  4Q7. 


"WOMEN  OF  THE   REVOLUTION.  .      51 

when  she  was  eightj^-eight  years  old,  and  as  agile  as  a 
girl  of  eighteen.  He  said  of  her,  "  Such  is  Mother 
Bailey.  Had  she  lived  in  the  palmj  days  of  ancient 
Roman  glory,  no  matron  of  the  mighty  empire  would 
have  been  more  highly  honored."  But  she  was  only  a 
type  of  many.  Patriotic  women  abounded  in  the  days 
of  the  Revolution,  and  their  patriotism  lives  in  their 
descendants.  The  historian  of  Schoharie  has  em- 
balmed upon  his  pages  the  records  of  their  heroic 
deeds.  Anticipating  the  needs  of  the  rangers,  MRS. 
ANGELICA  VEOOMAN  caught  a  bullet-mould,  some  lead, 
and  an  iron  spoon,  ran  to  her  father's  tent,  and  there 
moulded  a  quantity  of  bullets  amid  the  noise  of  the 
battle.  "  While  the  firing  was  kept  up  at  the  middle 
fort,  great  anxiety  prevailed  at  the  upper ;  and,  during 
this  time,  Capt.  Hager,  who  commanded  the  latter, 
gave  orders  that  the  women  and  children  should  retire 
to  a  long  cellar,  which  he  specified,  should  the  enemy 
attack  him.  A  young  lady  named  MARY  HAGIDORN, 
on  hearing  these  orders,  went  to  Capt.  Hager,  and  said, 
'  Captain,  I  shall  not  go  into  that  cellar,  should  the 
enemy  come.  I  will  take  a  spear  which  I  can  use  as 
well  as  any  man,  and  help  defend  the  fort.'  The  cap- 
tain, seeing  her  determination,  answered,  '  Then  take 
a  spear,  Mary,  and  be  ready  at  the  pickets  to  repel  an 
attack.'  She  cheerfully  obeyed,  and  held  the  spear  at 
the  picket,  till  hurrahs  for  the  American  flag  burst  on 
her  ear,  and  told  that  all  was  safe." l 

Patriotism  was  not  limited  to  any  one  section  of  our 
country.  The  North  and  the  South  were  alike  unwill- 
ing to  submit  to  British  aggression.  The  wife  of  Col. 
Fitzhugh  of  Maryland  collected  her  slaves,  and,  in  the 
absence  of  her  husband,  prepared  to  defend  their  home, 

1  Vide  Noble  Deeds  of  American  Women. 


52  WOMEN  OP  THE   CENTURY. 

when  they  were  visited  by  British  soldiers.  The  in- 
vaders fled  in  dismay.  ANNE  FITZHUGH  was  one  who 
could  respond  to  the  exclamation  in  Proverbs,  "  Who 
shall  find  a  valiant  woman  ?  The  price  of  her  is  as 
things  brought  from  afar."  Accompanying  her  blind 
husband,  whom  the  saucy  Britishers  determined  to  take 
as  prisoner  to  New  York,  she  left  her  home  half-clad, 
but  firm  in  her  purpose  not  to  leave  her  helpless  charge. 
She  had  previously  placed  pistols  in  the  hands  of  her 
sons,  and  sent  them  forth  from  the  other  side  of  the 
house  to  a  place  of  safety.  "  It  was  a  cold  and  rainy 
night ;  and  with  the  mere  protection  of  a  cloak,  which 
the  officer  took  down  and  threw  over  her  shoulders 
before  leaving  the  house,  she  sallied  forth  with  the 
party.  While  on  the  way  to  the  boat,  the  report  of  a 
gun  was  heard,  which  the  soldiers  supposed  was  the 
signal  of  a  rebel  gathering.  They  hastened  to  the 
boat,  where  a  parole  was  written  out  with  trembling 
hands,  and  placed  in  the  old  gentleman's  possession. 
Without  even  a  benediction,  he  was  left  on  shore  with 
his  faithful  and  fearless  companion,  who  thought  but 
little  of  her  wet  feet  as  she  stood  and  saw  the  cowardly 
detachment  of  British  soldiers  push  off  and  row  away 
with  all  their  might  for  safety."  * 

The  women  of  Revolutionary  days  afforded  the  poet 
ample  opportunity  to  praise  their  devotion  and  heroism, 
\nd  say,  as  one  did,2  — 

"  Proud  were  they  by  such  to  stand, 

In  hammock,  fort,  or  glen; 
To  load  the  sure  old  rifle, 

To  run  the  leaden  ball, 
To  watch  a  battling  husband's  place, 

^And  fill  it,  should  he  fall." 

i  Noble  Deeds,  &c.,  p.  259.  a  W.  D.  Gallagher. 


WOMEN   OF  TITE   REVOLUTION.  53 

This  was  illustrated  in  the  noble  act  of  a  woman 
whose  husband,  a  gunner  named  Pitcher,  was  killed 
daring  the  battle  of  Monmouth ;  and  she  then  stepped 
forward,  arid  took  his  place.  "  The  gun  was  so  well 
managed  as  to  draw  the  attention  of  Gen.  Washington 
to  the  circumstance,  and  to  call  forth  an  expression  of 
his  admiration  of  her  bravery  and  her  fidelity  to  her 
country.  To  show  his  appreciation  of  her  virtues  and 
her  highly  valuable  services,  he  conferred  on  her  a 
lieutenant's  commission."  She  was  afterwards  known 
as  Captain  or  Major  Molly. 

An  incident  is  related,  which  occurred  while  Wash- 
ington was  at  Valley  Forge  with  his  army,  and  the 
enemy  was  in  Philadelphia,  which  proved  that  a  coun- 
try girl  had  fidelity  and  courage.  Major  Talmage, 
hearing  that  such  a  girl  had  gone  to  Philadelphia, 
ostensibly  to  sell  eggs,  but  really  to  obtain  information 
concerning  the  enemy,  moved  his  detachment  to  Ger- 
mantown,  and  waited  with  a  small  party  at  a  tavern  in 
sight  of  the  British  outposts.  He  soon  saw  the  coun- 
try girl,  and  was  about  to  be  told  by  her  of  British 
plans,  when  he  was  informed  that  their  light  horse  was 
advancing.  "  Stepping  to  the  door,  he  saw  them  in  full 
pursuit  of  his  patrols.  He  hastily  mounted;  but,  be- 
fore he  had  started  his  charger,  the  girl  was  at  his  side 
begging  for  protection.  Quick  as  thought  he  ordered 
her  to  mcunt  behind  him.  She  obeyed,  and  in  that 
way  rode  to  Geimantown,  a  distance  of  three  miles. 
.During  the  whole  ride,  writes  the  major  in  his  journal, 
where  we  find  these  details,  '  Although  there  was  con- 
siderable firing  of  pistols,  and  not  a  little  wheeling  and 
charging,  she  remained  unmoved,  and  never  once  com- 
plained of  fear.'  "  * 

i  Noble  Deeds,  &c.,  p.  239. 


54  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

During  the  war  a  woman's  society  was  formed, 
whose  object  was  the  relief  of  the  soldiers  who  were 
in  need  of  clothing.  In  1780  the  ladies  of  Philadel- 
phia city  and  county  sold  their  jewelry,  and  converted 
other  trinkets  into  something  more  serviceable,  col- 
lected large  sums  of  money,  purchased  the  raw  mate- 
rial, plied  the  needle  with  all  diligence  ;  and,  in  a  short 
time,  the  aggregate  amount  of  their  contributions  was 
seventy-five  hundred  dollars.  This  sum  was  raised  in 
and  immediately  around  Philadelphia.  The  efforts  of 
the  ladies  were  not,  however,  limited  to  their  own 
neighborhood.  They  addressed  circulars  to  the  adjoin- 
ing counties  and  States ;  and  the  response  of  New 
Jersey  and  Maryland  was  truly  generous.  The  number 
of  shirts  made  by  the  ladies  of  Philadelphia  during 
that  patriotic  movement  was  twenty  -  two  hundred. 
These  were  cut  out  at  the  house  of  Mrs.  Sarah  Bache, 
daughter  of  Dr.  Franklin.  This  lady,  writing  to  a 
Mrs.  Meredith  of  Trenton,  N.J.,  at  the  time,  says,  4  I 
am  happy  to  have  it  in  my  power  to  tell  you  that  the 
sums  given  by  the  good  women  of  Philadelphia,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  army,  have  been  much  greater  than 
could  be  expected,  and  given  with  so  much  cheerful- 
ness, and  so  many  blessings,  that  it  was  rather  a  pleas- 
ing than  a  painful  task  to  call  for  them.  I  write  to 
claim  you  as  a  Philadelphian,  and  shall  think  myself 
honored  in  your  donation.'  "  * 

In  the  early  part  of  February,  1770,  the  women  of 
Boston  publicly  pledged  themselves  to  abstain  from  the 
use  of  tea.  On  Feb.  9  there  were  three  hundred  ma- 
trons who  had  become  members  of  the  league.  Three 
days  after,  the  young  women  followed  the  good  exam- 
ple of  their  mothers,  signing  the  following  document : 

i  Noble  Deeds,  p.  78. 


WOMEN   OF   THE    REVOLUTION.  55 

"  We,  the  daughters  of  those  patriots  who  have  and  do 
now  appear  for  the  public  interest,  and  in  that  princi- 
pally regard  their  prosperity,  as  such  do  with  pleasure 
engage  with  them  in  denying  ourselves  the  drinking  of 
foreign  tea,  in  hopes  to  frustrate  a  plan  which  tends  to 
deprive  the  whole  community  of  all  that  is  valuable  in 
life."  No  wonder  that  after  years  saw  such  prodigies 
of  v£  lor  in  those  who  showed  themselves  able  to  prac- 
tise such  patriotic  self-denial.  Side  by  side  the  men 
and  women  of  the  Revolution  objected  to  and  protested 
against  "  taxation  without  representation."  The  spirit 
of  the  ancestiy  still  lives  in  the  true  children  of  such 
noble  progenitors. 

Among  the  active  women  of  the  Revolution  was 
ESTHER  REED,  the  wife  of  Pres.  Reed,  who  stood  at 
the  head  of  the  Relief  Association  in  Philadelphia,  and 
who  wrote  a  letter  to  Washington,  informing  hjini  that 
the  subscription  of  the  women  amounted  to  $200,580, 
and  £625,  6s.  8c?.,  in  specie.  Mrs.  Reed  died  in  1780, 
at  the  early  age  of  thirty-four  ;  and  it  was  thought  that 
her  arduous  labors  hastened  her  departure.  She  was 
thus  a  martyr  to  liberty,  and  did  not  alone  deserve  that 
distinction.  As  in  the  civil  war,  many  other  women 
were  overworked,  and  f  '1  a  sacrifice  to  their  patriotic 
responsibilities  and  toils. 

LTD  LA.  DARRAH  is  mentioned  in  the  first  number  of 
"  The  American  Quarterly  Review-,"  as  an  amiable  and 
heroic  Quakeress  of  Philadelphia,  who  overheard  the 
order  react  for  the  British  troops  to  march  out  and 
attack  Washington's  army,  then  at  White  Marsh.  She 
obtained  a  pass  from  Gen.  Howe,  for  a  visit  to  a  mill 
for  flour ;  and  going  safely  through  the  British  lines, 
leaving  her  bag  at -the  mill,  she  hastened  to  the  Ameri- 
can lines,  saw  Col.  Craig,  and  told  him  what  she  had 


56  WOMEN   OP  THE  CENTURY. 

overheard.  By  means  of  that  information,  the  Ameri- 
can army  was  saved ;  for  the  British  found  them  pre- 
pared, and  forbore  to  make  the  contemplated  attack. . 

Butler's  "  History  of  Groton,"  in  Massachusetts, 
states  that,  "  After  the  departure  of  Col.  Prescott's 
regiment  of  'minute-men,'  Mrs.  David  Wright  of  Pep- 
perell,  Mrs.  Job  Shattuck  of  Groton,  and  the  neigh- 
boring women,  collected  at  what  is  now  Jewett's 
Bridge,  over  the  Nashua,  between  Pepperell  and  Gro- 
ton, clothed  in  their  absent  husbands'  apparel,  and 
armed  with  muskets,  pitchforks,  and  such  other  weap- 
ons as  they  could  find ;  and,  having  elected  Mrs. 
Wright  their  commander,  resolutely  determined  that 
no  foe  to  freedom,  foreign  or  domestic,  should  pass  that 
bridge.  For  rumors  were  rife,  that  the  regulars  were 
approaching ;  and  frightful  stories  of  slaughter  flew 
rapidly  from  place  to  place,  and  from  house  to  house. 
Soon  there  appeared  one  on  horseback,  supposed  to  be 
treasonably  engaged  in  conveying  intelligence  to  the 
enemy.  By  the  implicit  command  of  Sergeant  Wright, 
he  was  immediately  arrested,  unhorsed,  searched,  and 
the  treasonable  correspondence  found  concealed  in  his 
boots.  He  was  detained  prisoner,  and  sent  to  Oliver 
Prescott,  Esq.,  of  Groton,  and  his  despatches  were  sent 
to  the  Committee  of  Safety." 

Historians  tell  us  of  the  Kentucky  women  braves, 
who  were  successful  in  warding  off  the  attacks  of 
Indians  in  the  early  days  of  our  country ;  and  the  wife 
of  a  Mr.  John  Merrill  of  Nelson  County  is  specially 
mentioned,  as  brave  and  successful  in  her  defence  of 
her  home  during  the  summer  of  1787.  She  was  "a 
perfect  Amazon  in  strength  and  courage."  Such 
women  were  needed  in  those  "  dark  and  bloody  days." 
That  American  women  have  never  been  wanting  in 


WOMEN  OF  THIS  REVOLUTION.  57 

bravery,  either  in  Revolutionary  days  or  since,  Mrs. 
ANN  CHASE  showed  to  the  world,  when,  at  the  capture 
of  Tampico  in  1846,  she  displayed  the  American  flag, 
opposed  by  the  common  council.  No  menaces  could 
awe  this  intrepid  woman,  the  wife  of  the  American 
consul,  who,  in  her  daring  and  patriotism,  had  also  pre- 
viously given  Commodore  Connor  full  information  in 
regard  to  the  defence  of  the  place. 

DICEY  LANGSTON  was  a  South  Carolina  woman,  who 
was  equal  to  the  times  of  emergency  which  often  came 
in  the  days  of  the  Revolution.  She  was  in  the  good 
custom  of  conveying  intelligence  to  the  friends  of  free- 
dom. The  British  would  have  despised  her  as  a  spy, 
but  we  honor  her  as  the  friend  of  a  holy  cause.  She 
often  hazarded  her  life  in  crossing  marshes  and  creeks 
to  save  the  lives  of  others ;  and  on  one  occasion,  when 
she  was  returning  from  a  settlement  of  Whigs,  she  was 
set  upon  by  a  party  of  Tories,  and  questioned.  "  The 
leader  of  the  band  then  held  a  pistol  to  her  breast,  and 
threatened  to  shoot  her,  if  she  did  not  make  the  wished- 
for  disclosure.  '  Shoot  me,  if  you  dare  !  I  will  not  tell 
you ! '  was  her  dauntless  reply,  as  she  opened  a  long 
handkerchief  that  covered  her  neck  and  bosom,  thus 
manifesting  a  willingness  to  receive  the  contents  of  the 
pistol,  if  the  officer  insisted  on  disclosures  or  life.  The 
dastard,  enraged  at  her  defying  movement,  was  in  the 
act  of  firing,  at  which  moment  one  of  the  soldiers 
threw  up  the  hand  holding  the  weapon,  and  the  cower- 
less  heart  of  the  girl  was  permitted  to  beat  on  '  RE- 
BECCA MOTTE  has  her  name  also  on  the  scroll  of  honor, 
as  one  who  willingly  consented  to  the  burning  of  her 
large  mansion,-  which  stood  near  the  trench,  in  order  to 
effect  the  capture  of  Fort  Motte,  which  was  then  in 
the  hands  of  the  British.  The  Americans  were  sue- 


58  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

cessful,  partly  by  the  firing  of  arrows  so  prepared  as-  to 
set  fire  to  the  shingles  of  the  roof;  and  those  arrows 
had  been  presented  to  Mrs.  Motte  by  a  favorite  Afri- 
can. She  saved  them  when  the  British  officer  allowed 
her  to  pass  out  of  the  fort  to  the  Americans ;  and  he 
was  greatly  displeased  that  they  should  be  used  against 
him. 

ELIZABETH  STEELS  is  worthy  of  note  for  her  patri- 
otic donation  made  to  Gen.  Greene  in  an  hour  of  need. 
She  was  the  landlady  of  the  hotel  in  Salisbury,  N.C. ; 
and  the  wounded  Americans  were  brought  to  her  house. 
The  general  felt  much  discouraged ;  for,  added  to  the 
defeat  at  the  battle  of  the  Cowpens,  he  was  penniless. 
Mrs.  Steele  generously  donated  to  the  cause  he  repre- 
sented two  bags  of  specie,  saying,  "  Take  these,  for 
you  will  want  them,  and  I  can  do  without  them." 
Gen.  Greene's  biographer  says,  "  Never  did  relief  come 
at  a  more  propitious  moment ;  nor  would  it  be  straining 
conjecture,  to  suppose  that  he  resumed  his  journey  with 
his  spirits  cheered  and  brightened  by  this  touching 
proof  of  woman's  devotion  to  the  cause  of  her  coun- 
try." 

MAKY  REDMOND  was  called  in  Philadelphia  "  the 
little  black-eyed  rebel,"  because  she  was  so  ready  to 
assist  women  whose  husbands  were  in  the  American 
army,  in  gaining  intelligence  from  the  camp.  Mrs. 
Ellet  states,  that  "the  despatches  were  usually  sent 
fiom  their  friends  by  a  boy,  who  carried  them  stitched 
in  the  back  of  his  coat.  He  came  into  the  city  bring- 
ing provisions  to  market.  One  morning,  when  there 
was  some  reason  to  fear  he  was  suspected,  and  his 
movements  watched  by  the  enemy,  Mary  undertook  to 
get  the  papers  in  safety  from  him.  She  went,  as  usual, 
to  the  market,  and,  in  a  pretended  game  of  romps, 


WOMEN    OF   THE  KEVOLUTION.  59 

threw  her  shawl  over  the  boy's  head,  and  thus  secured 
the  prize.  She  hastened  with  the  papers  to  her  anxious 
friends,  who  read  them  by  stealth,  after  the  windows 
had  been  carefully  closed.  When  the  news  came  of 
Burgoyne's  surrender,  and  the  Whig  women  were  se- 
cretb.  rejoicing,  the  sprightly  girl,  not  daring  to  give 
vent  openly  to  her  exultation,  put  her  head  up  the 
cliiinney,  and  gave  a  shout  for  Gates." 

HANNAH  ISRAEL,  whose  maiden  name  was  Erwin, 
was  the  wife  of  a  farmer  so  patriotic,  that  he  declared 
he  would  sooner  drive  his  cattle  as  a  present  to  George 
Washington,  than  receive  thousands  of  dollars  in  Brit- 
ish gold  for  them.  He  was  taken  prisoner,  and  was  on 
board  a  British  frigate  anchored  in  the  Delaware  in 
front  of  his  house,  when  the  commander,  who  had  been 
told  of  that  saying  by  some  telltale  loyalists,  ordered 
some  soldiers  to  drive  the  cattle  down  to  the  river's 
bank,  and  slaughter  them  before  their  rebel  owner's 
eyes.  Mrs.  Israel,  who  was  brave  as  a  Spartan,  divined 
the  purpose  of  the  soldiers,  and,  calling  a  boy  eight 
years  old,  started  off  in  haste  to  defeat  their  project. 
"They  threatened,  and  she  defied,  till  at  last  they  fired 
at  her.  The  cattle,  more  terrified  than  she,  scattered 
over  the  fields ;  and,  as  the  balls  flew  thicker,  she  called 
on  the  little  boy  '  Joe  '  the  louder  and  more  earnestly 
to  help,  determined  that  the  assailants  should  not  have 
one  of  the  cattle.  They  did  not.  She  drove  them  all 
ink  the  barnyard,  when  the  soldiers,  out  of  respect  to 
her  courage  or  for  some  other  cause,  ceased  their 
molestations,  and  returned  to  the  frigate." l 

The  noble  deeds  of  the  days  of  Revolutionary  hero 
ism  were  not  all  confined  to  the  women  who  were  of 
the  dominant  race.  Red  women,  as  well  as  white,  who 

1  Noble  Deeds,  &c.,  p.  166. 


60  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUHY. 

dwelt  in  our  land  in  those  days,  were  inspired  with  gen- 
erous ardor  and  benevolent  zeal.  Says  Mr.  Clement, 
"During  the  Revolution,  a  young  Shawanese  Indian 
was  captured  by  the  Cherokees,  and  sentenced  to  die 
at  the  stake.  He  was  tied,  and  the  usual  preparations 
were  made  for  his  execution,  when  a  Cherokee  woman 
went  to  the  warrior  to  whom  the  prisoner  belonged, 
and,  throwing  a  parcel  of  goods  at  his  feet,  said  she 
was  a  widow,  and  would  adopt  the  captive  as  her  sou, 
and  earnestly  plead  for  his  deliverance.  Her  prayer 
was  granted,  and  the  prisoner  taken  under  her  care." 
EMILY  GEIGEE,  was  a  messenger  from  Gen.  Greene  to 
Gen.  Sumter.  Her  mission  was  a  dangerous  one,  for 
spies  often  paid  for  their  temerity  with  their  lives. 
She  was  mounted  on  horseback  on  a  side-saddle,  and 
was  intercepted  by  Lord  Rawdon's  scouts.  She  could 
not  deny  that  she  came  from  the  direction  of  Greene's 
army  ;  and  therefore  she  was  locked  up,  and  an  old  Toiy 
matron  ordered  to  search  her.  She  did  not  wish  to  be 
proved  as  a  spy,  nor  have  the  intelligence  in  the  letter 
she  was  bearing  imparted  to  the  British.  She  there- 
fore, while  alone,  ate  up  the  letter  piece  by  piece ;  and, 
when  the  searcher  arrived,  she  was  unable  to  find  any 
trace  of  her  errand  upon  her,  and  she  was  allowed  to 
depart.  She  hastened  to  the  camp  of  Gen.  Sumter, 
ind  delivered  her  message  verbally. 

N.y^CY  VAJ*  ALSTINE  is  said  to  be  "one  of  the 
bravest  and  noblest  mothers  of  the  Revolution."  Her 
fifteen  children  could  "  rise  up  and  call  her  blessed  ; " 
for  her  life  was  pure  and  noble,  and,  in  the  days  of  her 
country's  peril  from  hostile  tribes  of  Indians,  she  was 
fearless  and  undaunted.  The  pioneer  families  in  many 
parts  of  our  land,  a  century  ago,  had  reason  to  keep  a 
vigilant  watch  over  their  children  and  goods,  lest  the 


WOMEN   OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  61 

startling  war-whoop,  too  often  heard,  might  be  followed 
by  theft,  destruction,  and  awful  massacre. 

MARTHA  BRATTON  was  a  woman  of  the  Revolution, 
of  whose  deeds  and  character  we  may  judge  by  the 
following  toast  given  at  Brattonsville,  S.C.,  on  the  12th 
July,  1839,  at  a  celebration  of  Huck's  defeat :  "  The 
memory  of  Mrs.  Martha  Bratton.  In  the  hands  of  an 
infuriated  monster,  with  the  instrument  of  death  around 
her  neck,  she  nobly  refused  to  betray  her  husband: 
in  the  hour  of  victory,  she  remembered  mercy,  and  as 
a  guardian  angel  interposed  in  behalf  of  her  inhuman 
enemies.  Throughout  the  Revolution,  she  encouraged 
the  Whigs  to  fight  on  to  the  last,  to  hope  on  to  the 
end.  Honor  and  gratitude  to  the  woman  and  heroine, 
who  proved  herself  so  faithful  a  wife,  so  firm  a  friend 
to  liberty !  "  • 

ELIZABETH  ZANE,  —  she  was  the  young  heroine  of 
Fort  Henry.  When  the  little  band  in  the  garrison  at 
the  mouth  of  Wheeling  Creek,  in  Ohio  County,  Va., 
were  holding  out  against  thirty  or  forty  times  their 
number  of  savage  assailants,  and  were  about  to  sur- 
render for  lack  of  powder,  Elizabeth  Zane  insisted  upon 
being  the  one  who  should  risk  life  in  seeking  to  obtain 
a  keg  which  was  in  a  house  ten  or  twelve  rods  from 
the  gate  of  the  fort.  The  Indians  did  not  molest  her 
till  on  her  return  they  divined  the  nature  of  her  errand, 
and  then  they  fired  upon  her ;  but  "  the  whizzing  balls 
only  gave  agility  to  her  feet,  and  herself  and  the  prize 
were  quickly  safe  within  the  gate.  The  result  was  that 
the  soldiers,  inspired  with  enthusiasm  by  this  heroic 
adventure,  fought  with  renewed  courage ;  and,  before 
the  keg  of  powder  was  exhausted,  the  enemy  raised  the 
siege."  This  occurred  during  the  Revolutionary  war. 

ESTHER  GASTON  showed  her  bravery  by  mounting 


62  WOMEN    OF   THE   CENTURY. 

her  horse,  and,  with  her  sister-in-law,  hastening  to  the 
battle  of  Rocky  Mount.  Meeting  some  cowardly  runa- 
ways, they  asked  them  for  their  guns,  and  proposed  to 
stand  in  their  places,  whereupon  the  men  returned  to 
duty  ;  and,  while  the  fight  was  raging,  Esther  and  her 
companion  cared  for  the  wounded  and  the  dying. 

MAEY  ANN  GLEBES,  when  but  a  girl  of  thirteen, 
earned  the  name  of  heroine,  as  she  went  back  in  the 
dark,  and  amid  firing  of  guns,  to  the  mansion  of  her 
father  on  John's  Island,  near  Charleston,  S.C.,  in  order 
to  rescue  a  boy  cousin  who  had  accidentally  been  left 
in  the  hands  of  the  British  when  the  rest  of  the  family 
fled.  Even  the  young  girls  had  the  spirit  of  heroism  and 
patriotism  which  marked  the  women  of  the  Revolution. 

Mrs.  WILSON,  the  wife  of  Robert  Wilson,  whose  own 
name  we  «do  not  know,  was  one  worthy  to  be  remem- 
bered as  the  mother  of  eleven  sons,  most  of  whom  were 
soldiers,  and  some  were  officers,  in  the  war  of  the  Revo- 
lution, and  who,  when  asked  by  Lord  Cornwallis  to  use 
her  influence  with  her  husband  and  sons,  who  were  his 
prisoners,  to  induce  them  to  fight  for  the  crown, 
replied,  — 

"  I  have  seven  sons  who  are  now  or  have  been  bear- 
ing arms  ;  indeed,  my  seventh  son  Zaccheus,  who  is  only 
fifteen  years  old,  I  yesterday  assisted  to  get  ready  to  go 
and  join  his  brothers  in  Sumter's  army.  Now,  sooner 
than  see  one  of  my  family  turn  back  from  this  glorious 
enterprise,  I  would  take  these  boys,"  pointing  to  three 
or  four  small  sons,  "  and  with  them  would  myself  enlist 
under  Sumter's  standard,  and  show  my  husband  and 
sons  how  to  fight,  and,  if  necessary,  to  die  for  their 
country."  That  woman  deserves  to  be  known  as  the 
heroine  of  Steel  Creek. 

MRS.  SHUBRICK,  wife  of  Richard  Shubrick,  defended 


WOMEN    OP   THE  REVOLUTION.  63 

an  American  soldier  who  had  sought  refuge  with  her, 
by  placing  herself  before  the  chamber  in  which  he  was 
secreted,  and  resolutely  telling  the  British  officer,  "  To 
men  of  honor,  the  chamber  of  a  lady  should  be  as 
sacred  as  the  sanctuary.  I  will  defend  the  passage  to 
it,  though  I  perish.  You  may  succeed  and  enter  it, 
but  it  shall  be  over  my  corpse."  The  officer  ceased 
further  search.  On  another  occasion,  she  reproved  a 
British  sergeant  for  striking  a  servant  of  their  family, 
inflicting  a  severe  sabre-wound  on  his  shoulders,  be- 
cause he  could  not  disclose  the  place  where  the  plate 
was  hidden,  and  told  him  to  strike  her,  if  any  one ; 
for,  till  she  died,  no  further  injury  should  be  done  to 
the  aged  overseer.  The  sergeant,  discomfited,  retired. 

MARY  KNIGHT,  the  sister  of  Gen.  Warrell,  had  the 
following  tribute  to  her  patriotism  and  humanity  paid 
to  her  by  a  New  Jersey  newspaper  in  July,  1849 : 
"•  The  deceased  was  one  of  those  devoted  women  who 
aided  to  relieve  the  horrible  sufferings  of  Washington's 
army  at  Valley  Forge,  cooking  and  carrying  provisions 
to  them  alone,  in  the  depth  of  winter,  even  passing 
through  the  outposts  of  the  British  army  in  the  dis- 
guise of  a  market-woman.  And,  when  Washington 
was  compelled  to  retreat  before  a  superior  force,  she 
concealed  her  brother  Gen.  Warrell  —  when  the  Brit- 
ish set  a  price  on  his  head  —  in  a  cider-hogshead  in  the 
cellar  for  three  days,  and  fed  him  through  the  bung- 
hole  ;  the  house  being  ransacked  four  different  times 
by  the  troops  in  search  of  him,  without  success.  She 
was  over  ninety  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  her  death." 

MARGARET  CORBIN  was  one  to  whom  might  have 
been  said,  — 

"  Where  cannon  boomed,  \vhere  bayonets  clashed, 
There  was  thy  iiery  way." 


G4  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUBY. 

Mr.  Clement's  account  of  her  is  as  follows :  "  An  act 
similar  to  that  recorded  of  Mrs.  Pitcher  at  the  battle 
of  Monmouth  was  performed  by  Mrs.  Margaret  Corbin 
at  the  attack  on  Fort  Washington.  Her  husband  be- 
longed to  the  artillery ;  and  standing  by  his  side,  and 
seeing  him  fall,  she  unhesitatingly  took  his  place,  and 
heroically  performed  his  duties.  Her  services  were 
appreciated  by  the  officers  of  the  army,  and  honorably 
noticed  by  Congress.  This  body  passed  the  following 
resolution  in  July,  1779 :  '  Resolved,  that  Margaret  Cor- 
bin, wounded  and  disabled  at  the  battle  of  Fort  Wash- 
ington while  she  heroically  filled  the  post  of  her  hus- 
band, who  was  killed  by  her  side  serving  a  piece  of 
artillery,  do  receive  during  her  natural  life,  or  continu- 
ance of  said  disability,  one-half  the  monthly  pay  drawn 
by  a  soldier  in  service  of  these  States ;  and  that  she 
now  receive,  out  of  public  stores,  one  suit  of  clothes. 
or  value  thereof  in  money.'  " 

Other  women  there  were,  who  won  a  fair  renown  in 
Revolutionary  days.  The  limit  of  this  chapter  forbids 
further  mention ;  but  those  who  will  read  Mrs.  Ellet's 
"  Women  of  the  Revolution  "  will  find  her  pages  full 
of  thrilling  interest ;  and  will  place  the  names  of  ELIZA- 
BETH CLAY,  SUSANNAH,  SABINA,  and  ANNA  ELLIOTT, 
SAB  AH  HOPTON,  JANE  WASHINGTON,  MARTHA  WIL- 
SON, and  a  host  of  others,  whose  sympathy  encouraged 
the  men  who  fought  for  freedom,  and  whose  bravery 
and  valor  entitled  them  to  honorable  remembrance  foi 
many  a  century,  side  by  side  with  the  names  of  those 
who  signed  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
pledged  to  the  cause  of  liberty  "their  lives,  thcii 
fortunes,  and  their  sacred  honor." 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   WIVES   OF  THE   PRESIDENTS. 

Martha  Washington  —  Abigail  Adams  —  Martha  Jefferson — Dolly 
P.  Madison  —  Mrs.  Monroe  —  Louisa  Catherine  Adams  —  Rachel 
Jackson  —  Hannah  Van  Buren  —  Anna  Harrison  —  Letitia  Chris- 
tian Tyler  — Julia  Gardner  Tyler  — Sarah  Polk  — Margaret  Taylor 
—  Abigail  Fillmore  —  Jane  Appleton  Pierce  —  Mary  Tod d  Lincoln  — 
Eliza  Johnson  —  Julia  Grant  —  Lucy  Hayes  —  Lncretia  II.  Garfield  — 
Ella  L.  Arthur. 

''Fame  hath  a  voice  whose  thrilling  tone 

Can  bid  the  life-pulse  beat; 
As  when  a  trumpet's  note  hath  blown, 

Warning  the  hosts  to  meet; 
But,  ah! 'let  mine,  a  woman's  breast. 
With  words  of  home-born  love  be  blessed." 

MRS.  HEMANS. 

"Her  husband  is  known  in  the  gates,  when  he  sitteth  among  the  elders  of 
the  land."  —  PKOV.  xxxi.  23. 

IT  must  be  acknowledged  that  some  of  the  women 
whom   this    chapter   places   prominent   among    the 
Women  of  the  Century  are  mainly  known  and  honored 
because  connected  with  their  illustrious  husbands  ;  yet 
it  is  not  true  of  them   all,  that  their  position  in  the 


66  WOMEN    OiT   THE   CENTURY. 

nation,  as  the  wives  of  our  chief  magistrates,  was  their 
only  claim  to  recognition  or  remembrance.  They  were 
nearly  all  women  of  intellectual  power  and  moral  worth ; 
and  some  of  them  were  eminently  fit  to  be  regarded, 
when  occupying  the  White  House,  as  "  the  first  lady 
of  the  nation." 

Mrs.  Laura  C.  Holloway,  in  her  very  interesting 
book,  "  The  Ladies  of  the  White  House,1'  has  made  the 
path  smooth  for  the  writer  of  this  chapter;  and  the 
reader  who  would  know  more  of  those  women  who 
were  the  wives  of  our  Presidents  are  urged  to  peruse 
her  glowing  pages,  assured  that  they  will  have  all  the 
flavor  of  romance,  and  the  value  of  truth. 

MARTHA  WASHINGTON  was  the  first  who  was  hon- 
ored as  a  President's  wife,  and  her  history  is  perhaps  as 
familiar  to  us  as  any ;  for  historian  and  biographer  have 
vied  with  each  other  in  presenting  to  us  a  vivid  picture 
of  the  charming  widow  —  Mrs.  Martha  Custis  —  whom 
Col.  Washington  gladly  made  his  wife.  Her  maiden 
name  was  Dandridge,  and  she  was  a  descendant  of  the 
Rev.  Orlando  Jones,  a  clergyman  of  Wales.  She  is 
described  as  being  "  rather  below  the  middle  size,  but 
extremely  well  shaped,  with  an  agreeable  countenance, 
dark  hazel  eyes  and  hair,  and  those  frank,  engaging 
manners  so  captivating  in  Southern  women.  She  was 
not  a  beauty,  but  gentle  and  winning  in  her  nature, 
and  eminently  congenial  to  her  illustrious  husband. 
During  their  long  and  happy  married  life,  he  ever  wore 
her  likeness  on  his  heart."  She  was  but  twenty-five 
when  left  a  widow  with  two  children  by  her  first  hus- 
band, Col.  Custis.  The  daughter  died  at  the  age  of 
sixteen  ;  the  son  lived  to  be  one  of  his  illustrious  step- 
father's aids,  and  then  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight, 
leaving  four  children,  two  of  whom  were  adopted  by 


MARTHA   WASHINGTON. 


THE   WIVES  OF   THE   PRESIDENTS.  69 

their  grandmother,  and  ever  after  were  the  charge  of 
Lady  Washington  and  her  noble  husband.  Benson  J. 
Lossing  thus  describes  the  wife  of  the  first  President, 
as  pictured  in  the  days  of  her  widowhood :  "  In  the 
drawing-room  at  Arlington  House,  in  Virginia,  is  a 
portrait  of  a  beautiful  woman,  young  and  elegant,  yet 
of  matronly  gravity.  She  is  dressed  richly,  but  in 
simple  patterns  and  dignified  arrangements.  She  is 
plucking  a  blossom  from  a  shrub,  apparently  uncon- 
scious of  the  act,  for  her  thoughts  are  evidently  in  the 
direction  of  her  eyes  that  beam  upon  some  more  distant 
object.  It  is  a  pleasant  picture,  painted  more  than  a 
hundred  years  ago,  by  Wollaston.  It  is  the  portrait 
of  Martha  Custis,  a  wealthy  widow,  and  one  of  the 
most  attractive  of  the  women  who  graced  the  vice- 
royal  court  at  Williamsburg,  the  ancient  capital  of  Vir- 
ginia." On  Jan.  17,  1759,  Rev.  David  Mossom  official 
ing,  that  lady  became  Martha  Washington.  Her  life 
for  several  years  was  one  of  unbroken  sunshine.  She 
received  the  best  society  of  the  country  as  the  wife  of 
a  prosperous  planter ;  occasionally  visiting  Williams- 
burg  with  her  husband,  for  Washington  was  for  fifteen 
years  a  member  of  the  Legislature. 

Then  came  the  weary  years  of  war,  and  for  eight 
years  the  home  was  shadowed  by  his  absence.  "  The 
trial  of  separation  was  mitigated,  although  often  pro- 
longed to  wear}'  months.  Even  when  the  long  Indian 
Summer  days  of  October  shed  glory  over  the  burnished 
forest  trees,  her  cumbrous  carriage,  with  its  heavy 
hangings  and  massive  springs,  suggestive  of  comfort, 
was  brought  to  the  door,  and  laden  with  all  the  appur- 
tenances of  a  winter's  visit.  Year  after  year,  as  she  had 
ordered  supplies  for  this  annual  trip  to  her  husband's 
camp,  she  trusted  it  would  be  the  last.  .  .  . 


70  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

"  The  battles  were  fierce,  and  the  struggles  long ;  and, 
if  the  orderly  matron  disliked  the  necessity  of  leaving 
home  so  often  and  for  so  long  a  time,  her  heart  was 
glad  of  the  sacrifice  when  she  reached  the  doubly 
anxious  husband  who  was  watching  and  waiting  for 
her ;  anxious  for  his  wife,  somewhere  on  the  road,  and 
for  his  bleeding  country,  struggling  unavailingly  for 
the  eternal  principles  of  freedom.  .  .  .  Never  but  once 
or  twice  had  those  yearly  moves  been  disagreeable ;  and, 
though  universally  unoffending,  she  felt  the  painful 
effects  of  party  bitterness.  .  .  .  Once,  after  an  active 
campaign,  as  she  was  passing  through  Philadelphia,  she 
was  insulted  by  the  ladies  there,  who  declined  noticing 
her  by  any  civilities  whatever.  The  tide  in  the  affairs 
of  men  came ;  and,  alas,  for  human  nature  !  many  of 
those  haughty  matrons  were  the  first  to  welcome  her 
there  as  the  wife  of  the  President/' 

Mrs.  Washington  was  extremely  plain  in  her  dress, 
and  displayed  little  taste  for  those  luxurious  ornaments 
deemed  appropriate  for  the  wealthy  and  the  great.  In 
her  own  home  the  spinning-wheels  and  looms  were  kept 
constantly  going ;  and  her  dresses  were  many  times 
woven  by  her  servants.  Gen.  Washington  wore  at  his 
inauguration  a  full  suit  of  fine  cloth,  the  handiwork 
of  his  own  household.  At  a  ball  given  in  New  Jersey 
in  honor  to  herself,  she  wore  a  "  simple  russet  gown," 
and  white  handkerchief  about  her  neck,  thereby  setting 
an  example  to  the  women  of  the  Revolution,  who 
could  ill  afford  to  spend  their  time  or  means  as  lavishly 
as  they  might  have  desired.  "  On  one  occasion,  she 
gave  the  best  proof  of  her  success  in  domestic  manufac- 
tures by  the  exhibition  of  two  of  her  dresses,  which 
were  composed  of  cotton  striped  with  silk,  and  entirely 
homemade.  The  silk  stripes  in  the  fabric  were  woven 


THE  WIVES   OF  THE  PRESIDENTS.  71 

from  '  the  ravelings  of  brown  silk  stockings  and  old 
crimson  chair-covers.'  As  a  wife,  mother,  and  friend, 
she  was  worthy  of  respect;  but  only  as  the  com- 
panion of  Washington  is  her  record  of  public  interest 
She  was  in  no  wise  a  student,  hardly  a  regular  reader, 
nor  gifted  with  literary  ability ;  but  if  that  law,  stern 
necessity,  which  knows  no  deviation,  had  forced  her 
from  her  seclusion  and  luxury,  hers  would  have  been 
an  organization  of  active  goodness.  .  .  .  She  assumed  the 
duties  of  her  position  as  wife  of  the  chief  magistrate, 
with  the  twofold  advantage  of  wealth  and  high  social 
position ;  and  was  in  manner,  appearance,  and  character, 
the  pleasing  and  graceful  representative  of  a  class  of 
which,  unfortunately,  the  original  is  now  taken  from 
us,  —  a  lady  of  the  olden  time." l  The  republican 
court  was  held  in  Franklin  Street,  New  York,  at  first ; 
but  in  the  second  year  the  seat  of  government  was  re- 
moved to  Philadelphia,  and  Pres.  Washington  rented  a 
house  in  Market  Street,  between  Fifth  and  Sixth  Streets. 
At  the  close  of  his  administration,  they  retired  to 
Mount  Vernon,  and  there  Martha  Washington  became 
again  a  widow.  History  has  painted  often  the  scene  of 
Washington's  last  hours ;  but  no  pen  could  faithfully 
depict  the  grief  of  her  who  said  as  she  took  one  last, 
lingering  look  at  the  room  in  which  he  died  (a  room 
she  would  never  enter  again),  "  'Tis  well  all  is  now 
over.  I  shall  soon  follow  him.  I  have  no  more  trials 
to  pass  through."  Two  years  passed  away,  and  then 
she  went  to  him  ;  and  their  remains  rest  side  by  side  in 
the  sarcophagi  at  Mount  Vernon.  Not  soon  will  the 
writer  of  these  pages  forget  her  pilgrimage  thither. 
The  beauty  of  that  April  day,  when  with  my  daughter 
and  my  friend  I  stood  beside  that  sacred  mausoleum, 

i  Ladies  of  the  White  House,  pp.  20,  22,  30. 


72  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTUKY. 

and  thought  of  the  illustrious  pair  whom  death  had  not 
divided,  and  gathered  the  purple  flowers  of  the  myrtle 
growing  luxuriantly  there,  as  mementos  of  the  visit  to 
the  hallowed  scenes  of  Mount  Vernou,  will  long  be 
pleasantly  remembered ;  and  the  lapse  of  time  will  fail 
to  take  away  the  blessed  influence  of  that  memorable 
day. 

And  well  wrote  Mrs.  Holloway :  "  Stealtliily  the 
years  go  by,  and  we  wist  not  they  are  passing  :  yet  the 
muffled  and  hoarse  voice  of  a  century  astounds  us  with 
its  parting.  The  centennial  birthdays  have  been  cele- 
brated ;  soon  we  approach  the  hundreth  anniversary  of 
victories  won  and  independence  achieved.  If  the  glad, 
free  spirits  of  the  chief  and  his  companion  are  per- 
mitted to  review  their  earthly  pilgrimage,  let  it  be  a 
source  of  gratification  to  us  to  know  they  smile  upon  a 
Republic  of  peace.  Their  bodies  we  guard,  while  they 
crumble  away  in  the  bosom  of  their  birthplace  ;  and,  as 
long  as  a  son  of  America  remains  a  freeman,  it  will  be  a 
well-spring  of  inspiration,  to  feel  that  Virginia  contains 
the  Pater  Patrice,  and  the  woman  immortalized  by  his 
love."1 

ABIGAIL  ADAMS,  the  wife  of  Pros.  John  Adams, 
was  the  daughter  of  a  New  England  Congregationalist 
clergyman  named  Smith,  and  was  born  in  Weymouth, 
Mass.,  in  1744.  Her  father  lived  in  the  days  of  long 
pastorates,  and  for  forty  years  he  was  settled  in  Wey- 
niouth  :  her  grandfather  was  a  Congregationalist  minis- 
ter in  a  neighboring  town.  Born  of  such  stock,  we 
might  expect  a  conscientious  woman  ;  and  Mrs.  Adams 
was  all  that  those  words  imply.  She  was  cultured  also, 
and  a  woman  of  remarkable  judgment,  as  well  as  imagina- 
tive and  poetic  ability.  She  excelled  as  an  epistolary 

1  Ladies  of  the  White  House,  p.  58. 


THE  WIVES   OF  THE   PRESIDENTS.  73 

correspondent,  in  proof  of  which  is  the  fact  that  the 
"  Letters  of  Mrs.  Adams  "  are  still  read  with  pleasure 
and  profit.  During  the  early  years  of  her  married  life 
she  was  often  charged  with  the  sole  care  of  their  chil- 
dren, while  her  husband  was  attending  to  his  profes- 
sional and  other  duties  in  Congress  ;  and  it  was  on  one 
of  these  occasions  that  she  witnessed  the  cannonading 
around  Boston,  as  the  British  sought  to  secure  a  victory 
over  patriotism  that  was  unfaltering,  and  a  love  of 
liberty  that  nothing  could  paralyze.  Her  husband  was 
chosen  to  go  on  a  mission  from  Congress  to  France,  and 
took  their  eldest  son,  John  Quincy  Adams,  with  him ; 
and  in  loneliness,  but  with  courage  and  fidelity,  she 
cared  for  the  rest  of  the  flock  at  home.  In  those  days 
there  were  no  steamships  nor  ocean  cables,  so  that  news 
from  the  Old  World  must  be  long  in  reaching  the 
patient,  waiting  wife.  But  she  was  worthy  of  the 
praise  so  willingly  accorded  to  her  in  this  centennial 
year.  "  Circumscribed  as  her  lot  was,  she  has  left  upon 
the  pages  of  history  an  enviable  record  ;  and,  while 
Americans  forget  not  to  do  honor  to  her  husband's  zeal 
and  greatness,  her  memory  lends  a  richer  perfume,  and 
sheds  a  radiance  round  the  incidents  of  a  life  upon 
which  she  wielded  so  beneficial  an  influence."  l  All 
through  the  years  of  her  husband's  absence  in  Europe, 
at  the  court  of  Great  Britain  and  elsewhere,  she  was 
the  faithful,  active  wife  and  mother,  caring  for  her  aged 
father  and  for  her  children.  At  last  the  time  arrived 
when  she  could  leave  her  home,  and  cross  the  ocean 
to  her  husband's  side.  Her  father  had  gone  to  the 
heavenly  home,  her  sons  were  placed  with  careful 
guardians,  and  her  only  daughter  accompanied  her  to 
England.  She  remained  one  year  in  France  and  three 

1  Ladies  of  the  White  House,  p.  69. 


74  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUliY. 

in  England,  and  then  returned  to  the  land  of  her  birth, 
Her  husband  being  elected  vice-president,  she  accom- 
panied him  to  the  seat  of  the  United  States  Government, 
where  she  was  respected  and  beloved.  Her  letters 
show,  better  than  these  brief  sentences  can  possibly  do, 
the  woman  of  sound  sense  and  varied  culture  and  noble 
heart.  May  the  new  century  furnish  many  readers  for 
them! 

"  The  first  New- Year's  reception  at  the  White  House 
in  Washington  was  held  by  Pres.  Adams  in  1801.  The 
house  was  only  partially  furnished ;  and  Mrs.  Adams 
used  the  oval  room  up  stairs,  now  the  library,  as  a 
drawing-room.  The  formal  etiquette  established  by 
Mrs.  Washington  at  New  York  and  Philadelphia  was 
kept  up  in  the  wilderness-city  by  Mrs.  Adams." ! 
Owing  to  the  failure  of  her  health,  she  soon  after 
sought  the  bracing  air  of  her  native  State,  and  resided 
much  of  her  time  at  Quincy,  Mass.  "  She  lived  in 
Washington  only  four  months,  and  yet  she  is  insep- 
arably connected  with  it.  She  was  mistress  of  the 
White  House  less  than  half  a  year ;  but  she  stamped  it 
with  her  individuality,  and  none  have  lived  there  since 
who  have  not  looked  upon  her  as  the  model  and  guide. 
.  .  .  The  sacrifices  made  by  Mrs.  Adams  during  the 
long  era  of  war,  pestilence,  and  famine,  deserve  and 
should  receive  from  a  nation's  gratitude  a  monument 
as  high  and  massive  as  her  illustrious  husband's.  Let 
it  be  reared  in  the  hearts  of  the  women  of  America, 
who  may  proudly  claim  her  as  a  model ;  and  let  her 
fame  be  transmitted  to  remotest  posterity,  —  the  Portia 
of  the  rebellious  provinces.  .  .  .  Not  in  marble  or 
bronze  be  her  memory  perpetuated,  for  we  need  no  such 
hieroglyphics  in  this  country  of  free  schools.  Place  hei 

1  Ladies  of  the  "White  House,  p.  99. 


THE  WIVES  OF  THE  PliESLDENTS.  75 

History  in  the  libraries  of  America,  and  the  children  of 
freedom  will  live  over  her  deeds.  On  the  18th  of  Oc- 
tober, 1818,  then  seventy-four  years  of  age,  she  ceased 
to  live  in  the  ilesh,  and  her  remains  were  placed  by  the 
side  of  her  husband,  in  Quincy,  Mass.,  while  a  marble 
slab  beside  the  pulpit  in  the  church  where  they  wor- 
shipped, surmounted  by  the  bust  of  the  husband,  bears 
an  inscription  in  memory  of  both  parents,  written  by 
their  eldest  son." 

The  next  wife  of  an  American  president  here  to  be 
mentioned  is  MARTHA  JEFFERSON.  She  had  been  dead, 
however,  nineteen  years  before  her  husband  entered 
the  White  House  as  its  master.  She  is  said  to  have 
been  remarkable  for  her  beauty  and  accomplishments. 
She  died  in  1782,  leaving  three  children.  "  It  was  her 
fate  to  die  young,  and  be  denied  the  honors  that,  later 
in  life,  crowned  the  brow  of  her  gifted  husband.  Had 
she  survived,  no  more  pleasant  life  could  have  been 
traced,  than  this  gentle,  cultivated  Southerner's." 

DOLLY  P.  MADISON  is  the  name  by  which  the 
wife  of  President  Madison  is  known,  though  she  was 
called  Dorothy  by  her  Quaker  parents.  She  was  born 
in  North  Carolina,  May  20,  1772.  Like  Mrs.  Jefferson, 
she  was  twice  married.  She  was  wedded  to  Mr.  Madi- 
son in  October,  1794.  She  is  said  to  have  been  "  hum- 
ble-hearted, tolerant,  and  sincere.  .  .  .  The  power  of 
adaptiveness  was  a  life-giving  principle  in  her  nature. 
With  a  desire  to  please,  and  a  willingness  to  be  pleased, 
she  Mas  popular  in  society.  .  .  .  During  the  eight 
years'  life  of  her  husband  as  Secretary  of  State,  she 
dispensed  with  no  niggard  hand  the  abundant  wealth 
she  rightly  prized ;  and  the  poor  of  the  district  loved 
her  name  as  a  household  deity.  In  1810  Mr.  Madison 
was  elected  president ;  and,  after  Mr.  Jefferson  left  the 


76  WOMEN   OF  THE   CEXTTTKY. 

city  he  removed  to  the  White  House.  Under  the 
former  administration,  Mrs.  Madison  had,  during 
the  absences  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  daughters,  presided  at 
the  receptions  and  levees,  and  was  in  every  particular 
fitted  to  adorn  her  position  as  hostess  of  the  mansion 
she  was  called  to  preside  over.  .  .  Mrs.  Madison's 
sole  aim  was  to  he  popular,  and  render  her  husband's 
administration  brilliant  and  successful.  Her  field  was 
the  parlor;  and,  with  the  view  of  reigning  supreme 
there,  she  bent  tlie  energies  of  her  mind  to  the  one 
idea  of  accomplishment.  In  her  thirty-seventh  year 
she  entered  the  White  House."1  When  the  second  war 
with  Great  Britain  was  declared,  she  was  there. 

History  tells  us  how  the  Secretary  of  State  labored 
to  preserve  the  valuable  documents,  which,  in  this 
centennial  year,  will  be  gazed  upon  by  thousands  with 
so  much  pride  and  interest.  Among  them  was  the 
original  Declaration  of  Independence.  As  we  look 
back  to  those  days,  it  seems  almost  incredible  that  the 
Capitol,  the  White  House,  and  other  public  edifices, 
could  have  been  ruthlessly  demolished  by  a  foreign  foe. 
Under  Mrs.  Madison's  supervision,  the  magnificent 
portrait  of  Gen.  Washington  was  taken  down,  and 
carried  to  a  place  of  safety. 

The  British  soon  evacuated  the  city ;  and  the  presi- 
dent and  family  returned,  but  to  a  home  of  blackened 
ruins.  Peace  was  restored  ;  and  in  1816  the  levee  of 
the  president  was  spoken  of  as  the  most  brilliant  ever 
seen  in  the  Executive  Mansion.  "  It  was  on  this  occa- 
sion that  Mr.  Bagot  made  the  remark,  that  Mrs.  Madi- 
son 'looked  every  inch  a  queen.'  "  Mrs.  Madison  was 
in  no  sense  "  a  learned  woman,  but  decidedly  a  talented 
one  ;  and  her  name  will  ever  be  a  synonyme  for  all  that 

1  Ladies  of  the  White  House. 


THE   WIVES   OF   THE   PRESIDENTS.  77 

is  charming  and  agreeable."  Mrs.  Madison  survived 
her  husband,  and  died  at  the  age  of  eighty-two,  on  the 
12th  of  July,  1849,  "•  beloved  by  all  who  personally 
knew  her,  and  universally  respected." 

MRS.  MONROE  is  almost  unknown.  Her  name  was 
Eliza  Kortright  before  marriage,  if  the  statement  con- 
cerning a  Washington  belle  of  that  name  in  "  Ladies  of 
the  White  House  "  refers  to  her;  but  the  author  of  that 
book  adds  shortly  after,  "  Not  a  line  was  written  of 
Mrs.  Monroe  during  her  life,  save  a  mention  after  her 
husband's  election  to  the  presidency  ;  nor  has  any  his- 
tory of  his  life  been  written  from  which  to  glean  even 
a  mention  of  her  name."  And  still  further  on  she 
says,  "  Of  gentle  and  winning  manners  was  Mrs.  Mon- 
roe, and  possessed  of  a  face  upon  which  beauty  was 
written  in  unmistakable  lines.  Tall  and  gracefully 
formed,  polished  and  elegant  in  society,  she  was  one 
fitted  to  represent  her  countrywomen  at  the  court  of 
St.  Cloud,"  whither  she  accompanied  her  husband. 
The  story  of  her  fearless  visit  to  Madame  Lafayette, 
when  she  was  confined  in  the  Austrian  prison,  reflects 
great  credit  upon  her. 

In  after-time  she  acted  well  her  part  as  the  wife  of 
the  American  minister  in  England  and  Spain,  spending 
about  ten  years  in  Europe.  "  When  the  war  of  1812 
was  declared,  Mrs.  Monroe  was  living  in  Washington 
City,  dispensing  the  duties  of"  her  station  as  wife  of 
the  Secretary  of  State,  "  and  enjoying  the  society  of 
her  two  daughters."  In  1817  her  husband  became 
president,  and  she  then  dwelt  in  the  White  House ;  and 
the  leading  paper  called  her  "  an  elegant,  accomplished 
woman,  possessing  a  charming  mind  and  dignity  of 
manners  which  peculiarly  fitted  her  for  her  elevated 
station  "  But  she  was  of  domestic  tastes,  and  did  not 


78  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

enjoy  the  formal  or  senseless  talk  usual  in  drawing- 
room  receptions.  She  mingled  but  little  in  society; 
and,  as  her  health  failed,  she  became  still  more  a 
recluse.  She  died  suddenly  in  1830.  "Little  of 
interest  or  variety  is  there  connected  with  one  whose 
identity  was  so  completely  merged  in  her  husband's 
existence." 

LOUISA  CATHERINE  ADAMS  was  the  wife  of  John 
Quincy  Adams,  the  son  of  the  second  president,  and 
himself  the  sixth  president  of  the  United  States. 
"  With  her  closed  the  list  of  the  ladies  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. A  new  generation  had  sprung  up  in  the  forty- 
nine  years  of  independence.  She  was  London  born, 
her  parents,  though  patriotic  Americans,  having  their 
home  in  England  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  He  was 
appointed  by  the  Federal  Congress  a  commissioner,  and 
therefore  at  once  removed  to  Nantes.  But,  when  our 
national  independence  was  recognized,  he  returned  to 
London ;  and  there  she  was  married  to  Mr.  Adams,  who 
took  her  shortly  after  to  Berlin,  where  she  Avas  a  happy 
bride ;  and  for  four  years  she  maintained  a  high  posi- 
tion in  the  regard  of  all  who  knew  her,  winning  friends 
for  herself  and  her  country.  In  1801,  after  the  birth 
of  her  eldest  child,  she  came  to  the  United  States ;  and, 
as  her  husband  was  soon  elected  senator  to  Washing- 
ton, she  found  her  home  in  the  sunny  South  till  her 
husband  was  appointed  minister  to  Russia ;  and  they 
sailed  from  Boston,  leaving  her  two  eldest  children 
with  their  grandparents,  and  taking  a  third,  not  two 
years  old.  Europe  was  a  battlefield  then  ;  and,  while 
in  St.  Petersburg,  they  waited  for  Napoleon  to  conquer 
Russia.  During  the  six  years  of  her  stay  in  Russia, 
what  wondrous  things  transpired,  what  intense 
interest  marked  the  era,  we  in  comparative  quiet  can 
scarcely  conceive. 


THE   WIVES   OF  THE  PBESIDENTS.  79 

"  Death  took  from  her  an  infant,  born  whilst  there  ; 
and  the  twofold  affliction  of  public  and  private  trouble 
weighed  upon  her. '  They  lived  frugally,  laying  a  foun- 
dation for  future  competence  in  America.  National 
affairs  called  Mr.  Adams  to  Ghent ;  and  she  was  left 
"  alone  in  that  place  where  she  had  lived  five  years," 
to  pass  a  sixth  winter  longing  for  release.  At  last  she 
was  advised  to  travel  by  land  to  join  her  husband  in 
Paris.  She  went;  and  "hers  must  have  been  an  in- 
domitable spirit,  else  the  lonely  days  of  constant  motion 
through  villages,  and  wild,  uncultivated  countries, 
where  every  inanimate  thing  bore  traces  of  grim-visaged 
war,  would  have  convinced  her  of  the  risk  she  was 
running.  With  the  passports  of  the  Russian  govern- 
ment, and  the  strong  recommendation  of  being  the 
American  minister's  wife,  she  bade  adieu  to  all  appre- 
hensions, and  risked  all  to  only  get  nearer  home  and 
children."  Her  husband  being  appointed  minister  to 
the  Court  of  St.  James,  they  found  their  home  in  Lon- 
don in  May,  1815  ;  and  there  she  gathered  her  children 
once  more  about  her.  In  1817  Mr.  Adams  was  ap- 
pointed Secretary  of  State,  and  they  returned  to 
America,  where  after  a  brilliant  series  of  winters  in 
Washington,  her  home  being  a  centre  of  attraction, 
in  1825  her  husband  was  inaugurated  President  of  the 
United  States ;  twenty-eight  years  after  his  honored 
and  then  venerable  father  had  taken  the  same  chair. 
With  the  close  of  his  presidental  duties,  Mr.  Adams 
still  served  his  country  in  Congress  as  a  representative 
from  Massachusetts ;  and  therefore  for  fifteen  years  they 
resided  in  Washington,  though  often  at  his  old  home  in 
Quincy.  And  his  wife  was  usually  at  his  side.  When 
he  was  suddenly  stricken  with  paralysis  in  the  Capitol, 
she  was  ill,  but  hastened  to  him.  He  died,  and  she 


80  WOMEN' OF  THE  CENTl/RY. 

accompanied  his  remains  to  Quincy,  and  there  she  dwelt 
till,  four  years  after,  her  remains  were  placed  by  his 
side  ;  and  her  memory  is  now  cherished  by  her  country 
as  that  of  one  worthy  to  be  the  daughter-in-law  of 
Abigail  Adams. 

RACHEL  JACKSON  was  the  beloved  wife  of  Andrew 
Tackson,  but  ended  her  earthly  life  before  he  entered 
the  White  House  as  the  President.  She  was  the 
daughter  of  Col.  John  Donelson ;  and  her  early  home 
was  in  the  wilds  of  Kentucky,  though  she  was  born  in 
Virginia.  She  married  a  man  named  Robards  ;  but  he 
was  a  cruel  and  unprincipled  man,  and  she  was  finally 
divorced  from  him,  and  married  Andrew  Jackson. 
"  Subsequent  events  proved  this  marriage  to  be  one 
of  the  very  happiest  ever  formed.  .  .  .  Nothing  could 
exceed  the  admiration  and  love,  and  even  deference,  of 
Gen.  Jackson  for  his  wife.  Her  wish  to  him  was  law. 
It  was  a  blessed  ordering  of  Providence,  that  this  kind, 
good  heart  should  find  at  last,  after  so  many  troubles,  a 
tender  and  true  friend  and  protector,  understanding  her 
perfectly,  and  loving  her  entirely. 

"  Mrs.  Jackson  was  a  noble  woman,  and  abundantly 
blessed  with  superior  sense.  She  was  a  good  manager, 
a  kind  mistress,  always  directing  the  servants  and  tak- 
.ing  care  of  the  estate  in  her  husband's  frequent  ab- 
sences, and  withal  a  generous  and  hospitable  neighbor. 
.  .  .  She  had  no  children  of  her  own,  and  it  was  a 
source  of  regret  to  both ;  but  a  fortunate  circumstance 
threw  a  little  child  across  her  pathway,  and  she  gladly 
took  the  babe  to  her  home  and  heart.  Her  brother  had 
twin  boys  born  to  him ;  and,  wishing  to  help  her  sister  in 
a  care  which  was  so  great,  she  took  one  of  them  " J  home 
when  but  a  few  days  old.  The  general  became  so 

1  Ladies  of  tlie  "Wliite  House. 


THE  WIVES   OF   THE  PRESIDEOTS.  81 

attached  to  it  that  he  adopted  the  child,  and  gave  him 
his  own  name ;  and  this  son,  Andrew  Jackson,  jun., 
was  the  sole  heir  to  the  general's  large  estate.  The 
record  of  Mrs.  Jackson's  sad  early  marriage,  and  of  the 
forty  years  happily  spent  with  Gen.  Jackson,  is  full  of 
interest ;  and  the  reader  rises  from  its  perusal  with  a 
profound  respect  for  her  as  a  Christian  woman.  To 
gratify  her,  Gen.  Jackson  built  a  little  church  on  his 
estate,  where  a  Presbyterian  divine  ministered  to  the 
family  and  neighbors ;  and  therein  she  spent  many 
happy  hours.  Pier  health  being  delicate,  she  passed 
most  of  her  happy  married  life  at  the  Hermitage,  as 
their  estate  was  called,  visiting  Florida  and  Washing- 
ton with  her  husband,  but  preferring  the  quiet  of 
home. 

On  the  23d  of  December,  1828,  when  the  friends  of 
the  general  were  expecting  to  give  a  public  dinner  in 
Nashville  in  his  honor,  she  had  parted  with  earth  and 
all  its  scenes ;  and  his  heart  was  wrung  with  grief.  Six- 
teen years  he  mourned  for  her ;  and  then  the  summons 
of  re-union  came,  and  the  pure  wife  and  brave  husband 
were  together  again.  Their  remains  rest  in  the  garden 
of  the  Hermitage,  a  monument  being  raised  over  the 
vault ;  and  tablets  are  there  inscribed,  —  one  with  only 
the  general's  name,  and  the  record  of  his  birth  and 
death ;  while  the  other,  by  his  direction,  has  the  follow- 
ing testimony  to  one  woman's  worth :  "  Here  lie  the 
remains  of  Mrs.  Rachel  Jackson,  wife  of  President 
Jackson,  who  died  the  22d  December,  1828,  aged  61. 
Her  face  was  fair,  her  person  pleasing,  her  temper 
amiable,  and  her  heart  kind.  She  delighted  in  reliev- 
ing the  wants  of  her  fellow-creatures,  and  cultivated 
that  divine  pleasure  by  the  most  liberal  and  unpre- 
tending methods.  To  the  poor  she  was  a  benefactor, 


82  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

to  the  rich  an  example,  to  the  wretched  a  comforter, 
to  the  prosperous  an  ornament.  Her  piety  went  hand  in 
hand  with  her  benevolence,  and  she  thanked  her  Crea- 
tor for  being  permitted  to  do  good.  A  being  so  gentle 
yet  so  virtuous,  slander  might  wound,  but  could  not 
dishonor.  Even  Death,  when  he  tore  her  from  the  arms 
of  her  husband,  could  but  transport  her  to  the  bosom 
of  her  God." 

HANNAH  VAN  BUREN  was  born  in  Kinderhook,  on 
the  Hudson,  in  1782.  She  was  but  little  younger  than 
her  husband,  Martin  Van  Buren,  who  was  her  school- 
mate. She  was  of  Dutch  descent.  In  February,  1807, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  she  married  Mr.  Van  Buren, 
who  was  then  just  admitted  at  the  bar.  They  dwelt 
eight  years  in  Hudson,  thence  removing  to  Albany, 
where  she  died  in  1819.  She  did  not  live  to  enter  the 
White  House.  She  was  the  mother  of  four  children, 
one  of  whom  passed  on  before  her.  She  died  in  Chris- 
tian hope,  calling  her  children  about  her,  bidding  them 
farewell,  and  committing  them  to  the  care  of  that 
Saviour  she  loved,  and  in  whom  she  trusted.  "  The 
Albany  Argus  "  speaking  of  her  said,  "  Humility  was 
her  crowning  grace  :  she  possessed  it  in  a  rare  degree. 
.  .  .  She  was  an  ornament  of  the  Christian  faith." 
Seventeen  years  after  her  departure,  her  husband  became 
president. 

ANNA  SYMMES  HARRISON,  "the  wife  of  the  ninth 
president,  was  born  the  famous  year  of  American 
independence,  and  but  a  few  months  after  the  renowned 
skirmish  at  Lexington.  Her  birthplace  was  near  Mor- 
ristown,  N.J.  Left  motherless  when  very  young,  she 
was  trained  by  an  excellent  grandmother  on  Long  Island, 
and  became  fond  of  religious  reading,  and  acquired 
habits  of  industry.  She  was  a  pupil  at  one  time  of  the 


THE   WIVES   OF  THE  PBESIDENTS.  83 

well-known  Mrs.  Isabella  Graham,  and  was  an  inmate 
of  her  family.  Judge  Symmes,  her  father,  took  for  his 
second  wife  a  daughter  of  Gov.  Livingston  of  New 
York ;  and  they  removed  to  Ohio,  taking  the  youthful 
Anna  with  them.  Ohio  was  then  '  the  Far  West.'  In 
her  twentieth  year  Anna  became  the  wife  of  Capt.  Har- 
rison, *  subsequently  the  most  popular  general  of  his  day, 
and  president  of  the  United  States.'  Her  husband  was 
soon  after  elected  to  Congress;  and  she  accompanied  him 
to  Philadelphia,  then  the  seat  of  the  General  Government. 
Gen.  Harrison  was  appointed  by  Pres.  Adams  governor 
of  the  Indiana  Territory;  and  they  removed  to  Wafcash, 
where  Mrs.  Harrison  lived  for  many  years  a  retired  but 
happy  life.  Dispensing  with  a  liberal  hand  and  courte- 
ous manner  the  hospitality  of  the  gubernatorial  mansion, 
she  was  beloved  and  admired  by  all  who  knew  her.  .-.  . 
After  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe,  Gen.  Harrison  removed 
his  family  to  Cincinnati,  and  accepted  the  position  of 
major-general  in  the  forces  of  Kentucky,  then  about  to 
march  to  the  relief  of  the  North-western  Territory. 
Mrs.  Harrison  was  thus  left  a  comparative  stranger  in 
Cincinnati,  with  the  sole  charge  of  her  young  and 
large  family  of  children,  during  the  greater  part  of  the 
war  of  1812.  During  this  time  several  of  the  children 
were  prostrated  by  long  and  severe  illness ;  and  to  this 
trial  was  added  the  painful  anxiety  attending  the  fate 
of  her  husband.  But,  under  these  and  all  afflictions, 
Mrs.  Harrison  bore  up  with  the  firmness  of  a  Roman 
matron,  and  the*  humility  and  resignation  of  a  tried 
Christian  mother."  But  she  experienced  sore  bereave- 
ments. She  was  the  mother  of  ten  children  ;  but  during 
her  residence  of  thirty  years  at  North  Bend  "she 
buried  one  child  in  infancy,  and  subsequently  followed 
to  the  grave  three  daughters  and  four  sons  (all  of  whom 


84  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

were  settled  in  life),  and  ten  grandchildren.  .  .  .  Her 
influence  over  her  family  was  strong  and  abiding ;  and 
all  loved  to  do  reverence  to  her  consistent,  conscientious 
life.  Her  only  surviving  son  wrote  in  1848, '  That  I  am 
a  firm  believer  in  the  religion  of  Christ,  is  not  a  virtue 
of  mine  :  I  imbibed  it  at  my  mother's  breast,  and  can  no 
more  divest  myself  of  it  than  I  can  of  my  nature.' " 

In  1840  began  the  exciting  presidential  campaign 
which  is  the  first  remembered  by  the  writer  of  this  vol- 
ume, when  she  loyally  wore  the  Harrison  medal,  and 
heard  much  talk  of  log-cabins  and  hard  cider,  and  much 
singing  of  "Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too,"  and  other 
campaign  songs.  The  Whig  party  was  successful ;  but 
"  this  triumphant  victory  brought  no  sense  of  pride  to 
Mrs.  Harrison.  She  was  grateful  to  her  countrymen 
for  this  unmistakable  appreciation  of  the  civil  and  mili- 
tary services  of  her  husband,  and  rejoiced  at  his  vindi- 
cation over  his  traducers ;  but  she  took  no  pleasure  in 
contemplating  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  a  life  at 
the  Executive  Mansion.  At  no  period  of  her  life  had 
she  any  taste  for  the  gayeties  of  fashion  or  the  dissipa- 
tions of  society.  Her  friends  were  ever  welcome  to  her 
home,  and  found  there  refined  pleasures  and  innocent 
amusement ;  but,  for  the  life  of  a  woman  of  the  world, 
she  had  no  sympathy." 

But  she  was  never  called  to  the  White  House  recep- 
tions, grave  or  gay;  for  before  she  could  cross  the 
mountains,  her  health  being  feeble,  the  president  was 
dead.  The  blow  was  sudden  and  hard,  "  but  it  was 
borne  meekly  by  the  Christian  wife  and  mother ;  and 
she  aroused  herself  from  the  stupor  in  which  the 
announcement  had  thrown  her."  She  lingered  many 
years,  a  blessing  to  her  children  and  grandchildren,  and 
to  all  whom  her  continual  benevolence  could  reach 


THE  WIVES   OF  THE   PRESIDENTS.  85 

"  Her  intellectual  powers  and  physical  senses  were  re- 
tained to  the  last ;  and  at  the  age  of  eighty-eight  she  was 
an  agreeable  companion  for  both  old  and  young.  On 
the  evening  of  the  25th  of  February,  1864,  in  the  eighty- 
ninth  year  of  her  age,  she  died  at  the  residence  of  her 
son.  Her  funeral  took  place  at  the  Presbyterian  Church 
at  Cleves,  on  Sunday,  Feb.  28.  The  sermon  was 
preached  by  the  Rev.  Horace  Bushnell,  from  the  text, 
'  Be  still,  and  know  that  I  am  God.'  The  selection 
was  made  by  herself,  and  given  several  years  before  to 
Mr.  Bushnell,  her  pastor  and  intimate  friend  for  many 
years.  The  remains  were  deposited  beside  those  of  her 
husband ;  and  they  together  sleep  by  the  banks  of  the 
beautiful  Ohio,  at  North  Bend."  The  faithful  pastor 
has  no.w  followed  them  to  the  better  land. 

Pres.  John  Tyler  married  first  LETITIA  CHRISTIAN  ; 
and,  thirty  years  afterward,  he  took  for  his  second 
wife  JULIA  GARDINER.  The  former  was  a  Virginian, 
the  latter  a  New-Yorker.  The  first  wife  was  born 
Nov.  12,  1796,  and  was  married  to  Mr.  Tyler,  March 
29,  1813.  She  was  a  woman  of  beauty,  taste,  and 
refinement,  but  of  great  modesty.  She  is  said  to 
have  been  "  perfectly  content  to  be  seen  only  as  a  part 
of  the  existence  of  her  beloved  husband."  She  did 
not  court  society,  and  was  not  ambitious  to  shine  in  any 
social  circles,  though  as  her  husband  was  successively 
the  governor  of  Virginia,  a  member  of  Congress;  and 
finally  president,  she  would  have  had  ample  opportuni- 
ty. "  No  English  lady  was  ever  more  skilled  and 
accomplished  in  domestic  culture  and  economy  than 
was  Mrs.  Tyler,  and  in  her  own  home  was  a  pattern  of 
order,  system,  and  neatness,  as  well  as  of  hospitality, 
charity,  and  benevolence."  She  was  baptized  in  in- 
fancy in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and  in  early 


86  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

life  became  a  consistent  communicant.  Her  daughter- 
in-law  spoke  of -her  as  "  the  most  entirely  unselfish 
person  you  can  imagine."  When  she  died  at  the 
Executive  Mansion,  in  September,  1842,  many  poor 
people  of  the  vicinity  gathered  round  the  White 
House  in  groups,  and  stood  sobbing,  and  saying,  "  The 
poor  have  lost  a  friend." 

Pres.  Tyler  was  married  again  in  1844,  June  26; 
and  Miss  Julia  Gardiner  then  became  the  lady  of  the 
White  House.  It  was  the  first  marriage  of  a  president 
while  in  office,  that  had  occurred  in  this  country ;  and 
great  interest  was  felt  in  the  matter  all  over  the  United 
States.  The  bride  was  very  much  younger  than  her 
husband.  For  eight  months  she  performed  the  agree- 
able task  of  presiding  at  the  Executive  Mansion  with 
credit  to  herself,  and  pleasure  to  her  friends.  She  was 
the  beautiful  daughter  of  a  wealthy  gentleman  who  was 
suddenly  killed  by  an  explosion  of  a  cannon  while  on 
the  return-trip  from  Alexandria  to  Washington  with  a 
pleasure-party  invited  to  accompany  the  president,  and 
whose  remains  were  buried  from  the  White  House,  of 
which,  the  following  summer,  his  young  daughter  be- 
came mistress.  She  was  well  educated  and  accom- 
plished. For  seventeen  years  she  lived  in  Virginia, 
retired  from  public  life,  until  the  death  of  Pres.  Tyler 
at  Richmond,  the  17th  .January,  1862.  After  the  presi- 
dent's death,  Mrs.  Tyler  made  her  home  in  Staten 
Island,  N.Y.,  in  circumstances  of  affluence,  and  sur- 
rounded by  her  children  and  friends. 

SARAH  POLK  was  the  wife  of  the  eleventh  president. 
She  was  born  in  Tennessee,  Sept.  4,  1803,  the  daugh- 
ter of  a  wealthy  farmer;  educated  at  the  Moravian 
Institute,  at  Salem,  N.C.  She  was  but  nineteen  at 
the  time  of  her  marriage  to  James  K.  Polk,  who  was 


THE   WIVES   OF  THE  PRESIDENTS.  87 

then  a  member  of  the  State  Legislative.  The  next 
year,  he  was  elected  to  Congress,  and  continued  a 
member  for  fourteen  years,  in  1836  being  Speaker  of 
the  House.  Mrs.  Polk  accompanied  him  to  Washing- 
ton every  winter  save  one,  and  "  occupied  there  a  con- 
spicuous place  in  society ;  and,  by  her  polite  manners 
and  sound  judgment,  made  her  companionship  pleasant 
and  inspiriting.  She  was  a  highly  cultivated  without 
being  a  literary  woman."  She  was  a  member  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church;  and  "her  character  has  been 
entirely  a  Christian  one.  She  was  faithful  and  devout, 
consistent  in  her  conduct  to  every  rule  and  require- 
ment of  her  sect."  "  The  Tennessee  Democrat "  said 
of  her,  "We  have  seen  few  women  that  have  devel- 
oped more  of  the  genuine  republican  characteristics  of 
the  American  lady.  She  has  her  admirers  not  only  in 
the  highest,  but  in  the  humblest  walks  of  life.  The 
poor  know  her  for  her  benevolence ;  the  rich,  for  the 
plainness  of  her  equipage ;  the  church,  for  her  consist- 
ency; the  unfortunate,  for  her  charities;  and  society 
itself,  for  the  veneration  and  respect  which  her  virtues 
have  everywhere  awarded  her." 

At  the  close  of  his  presidential  term,  Mr.  Polk 
retired  to  Nashville,  Tenn. ;  and  there  he  died.  Hit; 
widow  still  continued  to  reside  at  the  elegant  mansion, 
maintaining  her  usual  dignity  and  propriety  of  life, 
calmly  awaiting  the  time  when  they  should  be  re- 
united. The  study  of  the  president  is  kept  in  order 
by  her  own  hands,  just  as  he  left  it.  Mrs.  Holloway 
closed  her  sketch  of  her  with  these  words :  "  The  life- 
time imitation  of  a  pure  and  useful  standard  of  excel- 
lence has  rewarded  her  with  a  glorious  fame  ;  and  she 
dwells  among  the  friends  of  her  youth,  honored  and 
respected,  trusted  and  beloved." 


88  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

MABGARET*  TAYLOB  was  born  in  Maryland,  and 
became  the  wife  of  the  twelfth  president,  Zachary 
Taylor.  Her  maiden  name  was  Smith.  She  was 
one  of  the  brave,  heroic  spirits,  who  endured  the 
hardships  of  the  camp  with  her  husband  while  he 
was  trying  to  overcome  the  wily  Seminoles  in  the 
Everglades  of  Florida,  and  the  savages  of  our  Western 
borders.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century,  Gen.  Taylor's 
house  was  a  tent ;  and  all  that  while  Lis  wife  was  his 
companion  in  privation  and  hardship,  separated  much 
from  her  children,  who  were  generally  left  at  school. 
Her  education  comprised  the  practical,  rather  than  the 
intellectual ;  and  she  could  prepare  her  husband's 
meals  with  success,  though  she  might  not  have  been 
able  to  plan  his  campaigns,  or  write  a  history  of  them. 
But  she  was  a  Christian  woman ;  and  it  was  through 
her  instrumentality  that  the  Episcopal  Church  was 
established  at  Baton  Rouge.  While  her  husband  was 
winning  laurels  in  Mexico,  she  was  pursuing  the 
quiet  home-life  she  loved  so  well.  When  her  hus- 
band was  elected  president,  she  declined  to  act  as  the 
lady  of  the  White  House ;  and  her  daughter  Betty,  the 
wife  of  Major  Bliss,  took  the  position,  the  mother  re- 
maining out  of  sight,  in  those  apartments  she  had 
selected,  and  where  she  received  her  more  intimate 
friends.  She  preferred  to  attend  personally  to  her  hus- 
band's wants.  A  year  passed,  and  then  came  the 
sudden  death  of  that  husband ;  and  with  no  regard  for 
vanished  splendor,  which  she  never  enjoyed,  Mrs.  Taylor 
departed  for  a  home  in  Kentucky,  but  finally  returned 
to  the  residence  of  her  son  in  Louisiana,  and  there 
died,  in  August,  1852,  possessed  of  a  Christian  spirit 
and  a  Christian  faith. 

ABIGAIL  FILLMOBE  was  the  daughter  of  the  Rev 


THE  WIVES   OF  THE   PRESIDENTS.  89 

Lemuel  Powers,  a  Baptist  clergyman,  and  was  born  in 
Stillwater,  N.Y.,  March,  1798.  Her  father  dying  while 
she  was  young,  and  her  mother  being  left  with  limited 
means,  she  was  left  to  struggle  with  the  ills  of  poverty, 
and  to  be  "  made  strong  through  discipline,  and  spirit- 
ualized through  sorrow."  Being  studious,  she  soon 
became  a  teacher,  and  for  several  years  taught  in  sum- 
mer, and  studied  in  winter,  earning  while  teaching  the 
money  to  pay  for  her  tuition.  She  became  a  thorough 
scholar  and  an  admirable  woman. 

While  yet  a  teacher,  she  met  Mr.  Fillmore,  who  was 
then  a  clothier's  apprentice,  but  teaching  in  the  winter 
months,  and  looking  forward  to  a  place  at  the  bar,  for 
which  he  was  studying.  In  February,  1826,  they  were 
married,  and  made  their  home  in  Erie  County.  "  Into 
the  small  house  built  by  the  husband's  hands,  the  wife 
carried  all  the  ambition  and  activity  of  other  days,  and 
at  once  resumed  her  avocations  as  a  teacher  while  per- 
forming the  duties  of  maid-of-all-work,  housekeeper,  and 
hostess.  Mr.  Fillmore  was  thus  enabled  to  practise  his 
profession,  relieved  of  all  care  and  responsibility  by  his 
thoughtful  wife ;  and  so  rapid  was  his  progress  that  in 
less  than  two  years  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
State  Legislature.  ...  In  the  spring  of  1830  Mrs.  Fill- 
more  removed  with  her  husband  to  Buffalo.  In  the 
enjoyment  of  her  children's  society,  her  husband's  pros- 
perity, and  the  pleasure  of  entertaining  her  friends,  she 
found  great  happiness;  and,  as  the  years  passed  by, 
they  were  noted  only  for  the  peace  and  contentment 
they  brought  her.  .  .  .  Well  balanced  and  self-reliant, 
affectionate  and  happy,  there  was  wanting  nothing  to 
complete  her  character.  The  domestic  harmony  of  her 
life  can  be  partly  appreciated  from  the  remark  made  by 
ner  husband  after  her  death :  '  For  twenty-seven  years, 


90  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUKY. 

my  entire  married  life,'  lie  said,  '  I  was  always  greeted 
with  a  happy  smile.'  .  .  .  After  her  husband's  accession 
to  the  presidency,  she  went  to  the  White  House ;  but 
the  recent  death  of  a  sister  kept  her  from  entering  into 
the  gayety  of  the  outer  world.  As  much  as  possible 
she  screened  herself  from  public  observation,  and  left 
to  her  daughter  the  duties  devolving  upon  her  "  as  the 
president's  wife.  Her  health  had  become  impaired ;  and 
she  died  at  Willard's  Hotel,  Washington,  March  30, 
1853,  and  her  remains  were  taken  to  Buffalo. 

JAKE  PIERCE  was  born  at  Hampton,  N.H.,  March 
12,  1806.  She  was  known  as  Jane  Means  Appleton. 
Her  father,  Rev.  Jesse  Appleton,  D.D.,  assumed  the 
presidency  of  Bowdoin  College  when  she  was  one  year 
old.  She  was  "  reared  in  an  atmosphere  of  cultivation 
and  refined  Christian  influences  ;  "  delicate  in  constitu- 
tion, of  strong  mind,  and  great  love  of  the  beautiful. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-eight  she  married  the  Hon. 
Franklin  Pierce,  then  of  Hillsborough,  and  a  member 
of  the  lower  house  of  Congress.  "  The  mother  of  three 
children,  none  survived  her ;  and  the  death  of  the  last, 
under  circumstances  so  peculiar,  shattered  the  small 
remnant  of  failing  health,  and  left  the  mother's  heart 
forever  desolate."  The  young  son,  thirteen  years  of 
age,  was  killed  by  a  railroad  accident  just  after  the 
election  to  the  presidency.  A  writer  says,  "  It  is  no 
disparagement  to  others  who  have  occupied  her  station 
at  the  White  House,  to  claim  for  her  an  unsurpassed 
dignity  and  grace,  delicacy  and  purity,  in  all  that  per- 
tains to  public  life.  There  was  a  home,  a  Christian 
home,  quietly  and  constantly  maintained;  and  very 
many  hearts  rejoiced  in  its  blessings."  In  the  autumn 
of  1857  Mrs.  Pierce,  accompanied  by  her  husband, 
visited  the  island  of  Madeira,  and  afterwards  various 


THE  WIVES   OF  THE  PRESIDENTS  91 

portions  of  Europe.  On  the  2d  December,  1863,  she 
died  at  Andover,  Mass.,  and  was  buried  by  the  side  of 
her  children  in  Concord,  N.H.,  where  her  husband  con- 
tinued to  reside  until  his  death.  The  press,  in  referring 
to  her  departure,  spoke  of  her  as  possessed  of  every 
estimable  quality  which  could  become  a  true  Christian 
gentlewoman. 

MARY  TODD  LINCOLN  was  the  wife  of  the  beloved 
martyr  president;  and  the  hallowed  memory  of  the 
noble  husband  sanctifies  all  connected  with  his  family, 
or  bearing  his  name,  in  such  measure  that  their  faults 
will  be  likely  to  be  overlooked,  and  their  peculiarities 
excused.  Mrs.  Lincoln  "  was  a  Kentuckian  by  birth, 
and  a  member  of  the  good  old  Todd  family  of  Lexing- 
ton. Her  early  years  were  spent  in  that  homely  town 
of  beautiful  surroundings,  with  an  aunt  who  reared 
her,  she  being  an  orphan.  Childhood  and  youth  were 
passed  in  comfort  and  comparative  luxury,  nor  did  she 
ever  know  poverty.  But  her  restless  nature  found  but 
little  happiness  in  the  society  of  her  elders ;  and  she 
went,  when  just  merging  into  womanhood,  to  reside 
with  her  sister  in  Springfield.  The  attractions  of  this 
then  small  place  were  greatly  augmented  by  the  society 
of  the  young  people  ;  and  Mary  Todd  passed  the  pleas- 
antest  years  of  her  life  in  her  sister's  Western  home. 
On  the  4th  of  November,  1842,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one,  she  was  married  to  Abraham  Lincoln,  a  prominent 
lawyer  of  Illinois."  Four  years  later,  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
elected  to  Congress;  but  Mrs.  Lincoln  remained  with 
her  children  in  Springfield,  111.  "  The  daughter  of  a 
Congressman,  she  becams  the  wife  of  a  successful 
politician,  and  had  ample  means  and  time  to  develop 
and  cultivate  herself  in  every  particular."  If  she  did 
not  do  this,  it  was  not  the  fault  of  her  husband,  but 


92  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

of  herself.  She  is  said  to  have  been  ambitious,  vain, 
and  overbearing,  and  failed  to  fill  creditably  the  place 
which  she  so  long  aspired  to  fill ;  and  this  failure  has 
been  attributed  to  ignorance  of  human  nature,  and 
want  of  self-respect.  The  sad  fact  that  she  was  re- 
garded as  insane  in  after-years,  and  was  placed  in  an 
asylum  by  her  own  son,  may  go  far  to  excuse  her  in 
the  eyes  of  many  who  desire  to  be  charitable  in  their 
judgment  of  a  woman  who  was  called  in  the  troublous 
times  of  war,  and  with  the  sorrow  of  bereavement,  to 
occupy  the  place  which  had  been  so  admirably  filled  by 
the  niece  of  Pres.  Buchanan  in  a  time  of  peace. 

"The  Republican  Convention  of  Chicago  verified 
Mrs.  Lincoln's  prophecy  of  being  the  wife  of  a  presi- 
dent. It  assembled  the  16th  of  June,  1860.  .  .  .  Mrs. 
Lincoln  waited  in  her  own  home  for  the  result  of  her 
prediction ;  and  when,  at  noon,  the  cannon  on  the  pub- 
lic square  announced  the  decision  of  the  convention, 
breathless  with  excitement,  she  scarcely  dared  to  ask 
the  result.  Her  husband,  in  the  excitement  of  the 
moment,  did  not  forget  her ;  but,  putting  the  telegram 
in  his  pocket,  he  remarked  to  his  friends  that  there  was 
a  little  woman  on  Eighth  Street  who  had  some  interest 
in  the  matter,  and  walked  home  to  gladden  her  heart 
with  the  good  news.  That  Friday  night  must  have  been 
the  very  happiest  of  her  life  ;  for  few  women  have  ever 
craved  the  position  as  she  did,  and  it  was  hers."  But 
the  White  House  was  not  a  place  of  comfort  to  her 
long.  The  death  of  little  Willie  was  a  heavy  blow  to 
both  parents.  "  Two  years  of  mourning  outwardly,  and 
perhaps  a  lifetime  of  inward  grief,  succeeded  Willie's 
death ;  and  the  mother,  faithful  to  the  memory  of  her 
lost  child,  crossed  never  again  the  guests'  room  in 
which,  or  the  Green  Room  where,  his  body  had  lain." 


THE  WIVES   OF  THE  PKESIDENIS.  93 

The  shock  of  her  husband's  death  was  very  great, 
and  so  affected  her  mind,  doubtless,  as  to  render  her 
unfit  for  the  cares  that  then  devolved  upon  her.  Her 
subsequent  life  has  been  that  of  a  woman  to  whom  life 
had  been  largely  a  disappointment,  though  she  once 
attained  the  goal  of  her  ambition.  She  travelled  in 
Europe  with  her  son  Thaddeus,  who  afterward  died . 
Mrs.  Lincoln  died  in  1882.  Closing  a  charitable  and 
interesting  sketch  of  her  Mrs.  Mary  Clemmer  says  :  — 

"  They  laid  her  beside  her  illustrious  husband,  wear- 
ing the  wedding  ring  that  for  forty  faithful  year.3  she 
had  worn  for  him,  bearing  the  inscription  he  placed 
there  :  '  Love  is  eternal.'  Let  us  hope  that  in  its  eter- 
nity she  has  already  said  to  him  :  '  Good-morning ! ' 

"  It  is  a  credit  to  -American  manhood  that  the  men 
who  have  written  of  Mrs.  Lincoln's  death  have  not  for- 
gotten that  she  was  the  consort,  honored  and  beloved,  of 
the  first  martyr  of  their  country,  and,  as  such,  passing 
swiftly  by  her  faults,  they  have  laid  with  reverent  hand 
the  bays  of  kindly  honor  on  her  exalted  grave." 

ELIZA  McCAKDLE  married  Andrew  Johnson  when  she 
was  seventeen,  and  he  twenty-one,  without  a  thought 
that  he  would  ever  reach  the  high  position  which  he 
afterward  filled.  "It  is  a  mistaken  idea  that  she 
taught  her  husband  his  letters  ;  for  in  the  dim  shadows 
of  the  workshop  at  Raleigh,  after  the  toil  of  the  day 
was  complete,  he  had  mastered  the  alphabet,  and  made 
himself  generally  acquainted  with  the  construction  of 
words  and  sentences.  The  incentive  to  acquire  mental 
attainment  was  certainly  enhanced  when  he  felt  the 
superiority  of  her  acquirements ;  and  from  that  time 
his  heroic  nature  began  to  discover  itself.  In  the  silent 
watches  of  the  night,  while  sleep  rested  upon  the  vil- 
lage, the  youthful  couple  studied  together ;  she  oft- 


94  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

times  reading  as  he  completed  the  weary  task  before 
him,  oftener  still  bending  over  him  to  guide  his  hand 
in  writing.  He  never  had  the  benefit  of  one  day's 
schooling  in  his  life ;  yet  he  acquired,  by  perseverance, 
the  benefits  denied  by  poverty.  What  a  contemplation 
it  must  have  been  to  those  mothers  [his  own  and  his 
wife's,  both  widows]  who  watched  over  their  children 
as  they  struggled  together !  In  that  obscure  village  in 
the  mountains  [Greenville,  Tenn.],  three  strong  yet 
tender-hearted  women  watched  over  and  cherished  the 
budding  genius  of  the  future  statesman.  History,  in 
preserving  its  record  of  the  life  and  services  of  the 
seventeenth  president  of  the  United  States,  rears  to 
them  a-noble  tribute  of  their  faithfulness." 

Mrs.  Johnson  always  opposed'  any  publicity  being 
given  to  her  private  life ;  but  it  is  not  just  to  woman- 
hood that  she  should  be  silently  passed  by.  She  once 
remarked  that  "  her  life  had  been  spent  at  home,  caring 
for  her  children,  and  practising  the  economy  rendered 
necessary  by  her  husband's  small  fortune." 

When  the  war  began  she  was  in  the  South,  in  feeble 
health,  but  was  ordered  to  proceed  northward,  and,  after 
days  and  nights  of  suffering  and  fatigue,  reached  Nash- 
ville. It  was  a  perilous  journey,  but  the  heart  of  the 
feeble  woman  was  strong.  That  heart  was  almost 
broken  by  the  sudden  death  of  her  son,  an  army  sur- 
geon, who  was  thrown  from  his  horse,  and  killed.  Then 
came  the  assassination  of  the  president,  and  the  accession 
of  her  husband  to  the  chair  of  government.  But  she 
never  shone  as  the  lady  of  the  White  House.  A  news- 
paper correspondent  wrote,  "  Mrs.  Johnson,  a  confirmed 
invalid,  has  never  appeared  in  society  in  Washington. 
Her  very  existence  is  a  myth  to  almost  every  one.  She 
was  last  seen  at  a  party  given  to  her  grandchildren. 


MRS.   U.   S.   GRANT. 


THE   WIVES  OF   THE  PRESIDENTS.  97 

She  was  seated  in  one  of  the  republican  court  chairs, 
—  a  dainty  affair  of  satin  and  ebony.  .  .  .  She  is  an 
invalid  now ;  but  an  observer  would  say,  contemplating 
her,  '  A  noble  woman,  God's  best  gift  to  man.'  "  Mrs. 
Johnson  shared  as  little  as  possible  in  the  honors 
accorded  to  her  family,  as  well  after  as  during  their 
stay  at  the  White  House,  and  gladly  turned  her  face 
homeward,  to  find  rest  so  necessary  to  her  feeble  con- 
stitution. God  gave  her  the  long  repose  at  last,  and  to 
her  husband  also.  Peace  to  their  memory  ! 

JULIA  DENT  GRANT  was  the  lady  of  the  White  House 
during  centennial  year.  Her  husband,  the  conquering 
general  of  the  Union  army,  is  the  eighteenth  president 
of  the  United  States.  She  was  born  in  St.  Louis,  Mo., 
Jan.  26,  1826.  The  social  standing  of  her  family  may 
be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  her  great-grandfather 
was  "  surveyor-general  of  the  Colony  of  Maryland,"  her 
grandfather  was  "surveyor-general  of  the  State  of 
Maryland,"  and  her  father  was  "  surveyor-general  of 
Missouri."  The  latter  early  in  life  acquired  a  compe- 
tency, and  retired  with  his  family  to  a  farm  near  St. 
Louis,  spending  the  winters  in  the  city.  That  farm  was 
hi  the  possession  of  the  family  more  than  threescore 
years.  The  mother,  Mrs.  Dent,  was  unassuming  in  man- 
ner, but  possessed  of  rare  common-sense ;  and  her  daugh- 
ters, both  Mrs.  Sharp  and  Mrs.  Grant,  greatly  resemble 
her  in  personal  appearance  and  mental  characteristics. 

The  youthful  Julia  attended  a  fine  select  school  of 
the  city,  and,  while  not  remarkable  as  a  student,  yet 
acquitted  herself  with  credit,  and  became  accomplished 
in  music,  drawing,  dancing,  &c.  She  left  school  at  the 
age  of  seventeen,  and  spent  the  following  winter  witt 
her  school  friend,  a  daughter  of  a  gentleman  distin- 
guished for  wealth  and  benevolence,  coming  out  in 
society  under  the  chaperonage  of  his  wife. 


98  WOMEN  OF  THE   C 

Her  brother  brought  to  his  home  his  messmate  and 
roommate  at  the  Jefferson  Barracks ;  and  Lieut.  Grant 
obtained  favor  at  once  in  the  eyes  of  all  her  family 
before  she  had  seen  Mm.  But  she  met  him  at  last,  and 
they  were  soon  lovers.  Their  engagement  lasted  four 
years,  young  Grant  in  the  mean  time  distinguishing  him- 
self in  the  Mexican  war.  Four  months  after  his  return 
they  were  married,  on  Aug.  22,  1849,  and  dwelt  quietly 
as  private  citizens  till  his  country  called  him  to  her  ser- 
vice, when  she  nobly  seconded  his  patriotic  efforts ;  and, 
when  his  grateful  country  called  him  to  the  presidential 
chair,  she  came  with  dignity  to  his  side,  where  she  com- 
mands the  respect  of  all  who  behold  he*r. 

She  has  three  children  now  on  earth,  —  Frederick, 
Ulysses,  and  Nellie  (now  Mrs.  Sartoris). 

Mrs.  Grant's  sound  common-sense  and  admirable 
tact  have  enabled  her  to  bear  a  sudden  elevation  from 
comparative  obscurity  to  a  position  where  every  act  is 
liable  to  criticism,  and  to  share  the  success  of  her  hus- 
band, so  quietly  that  it  is  evident  she  possesses  qualities 
of  mind  and  heart  worthy  of  commendation  and  imita- 
tion. 

In  person,  Mrs.  Grant  is  a  little  below  medium  in 
stature,  has  dark  hair  and  eyes,  is  somewhat  inclined  to 
be  stout  in  figure,  and  with  dark  complexion.  She  is 
said  to  dress  richly,  but  with  due  regard  to  her  complex- 
ion, age,  and  position.  A  lady  who  saw  her  at  a  recep- 
tion, before  Gen.  Grant  was  president,  describes  her 
dress  "  as  black  velvet  lined  with  white  silk,  and  with 
court  train  and  flowing  sleeves,  with  amber  ornaments 
on  wrist,  throat,  and  hair,"  and  thinks  she  could  not  have 
worn  any  thing  more  becoming.  "  Her  manner  is  very 
unassuming  and  winning,  especially  to  children  and  to 
people  who  feel  a  little  embarrassment :  she  will  put  her 


THE   WIVES   OF   THE   PRESIDENTS.  101 

seif  out  to  put  such  at  their  ease,  even  when  dignitaries 
have  to  wait  her  pleasure  for  an  introduction."  Her 
summers  are  usually  spent  at  Long  Branch,  N.  J. ;  and 
the  true  mother  heart  was  shown  when  she  declared 
that  her  grandchild  should  be  born  by  the  sea,  for  she 
would  not  risk  her  child's  life  for  the  sake  of  having  it 
to  say  that  her  babe  was  born  in  the  "White  House. 
Washington  was  a  furnace ;  and  Long  Branch  was  a 
summer  retreat  where  a  young  mother's  health  would 
not  be  so  endangered.  Mrs.  Grant  is  deserving  of  honor 
as  a  true  wife  and  mother ;  and,  as  in  the  earlier  years 
of  her  married  life  she  necessarily  gave  much  personal 
attention  to  her  domestic  affairs,  so  now  her  various 
places  of  residence  bear  a  home  look  such  as  a  good 
housewife  alone  can  give. 

The  nation  has  no  reason  to  be  ashamed  of  the  wife 
of  its  centennial  president ;  and  the  women  of  the 
century  may  well  hold  in  high  esteem  one  who  regards 
duty  as  paramount,  and  who  honors  her  position  as  first 
lady  in  the  nation  by  a  pure,  Christian  life. 

The  wife  of  President  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  is  espe- 
cially known  as  the  noble  woman  who  favored  temper- 
ance so  far  as  to  give  the  sanction  of  her  social  position 
and  the  whole  weight  of  her  social  influence  to  that 
cause,  while  in  the  White  House,  even  to  the  extent  of 
banishing  the  intoxicating  cup  from  the  social  gatherings 
over  which  she  presided.  So  greatly  was  her  example 
prized  that  the  thousands  of  women  in  our  land  con- 
nected with  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union, 
procured  a  full-length  portrait  of  the  much-esteemed 
lady  and  framed  it  with  great  elegance,  so  that  it  might 
adorn  the  White  House,  and  thus  bear  to  posterity  the 
estimate  in  which  Mrs.  Hayes  and  her  temperance  career 
was  held. 


102  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

LUCY  W.  HAYES  was  born  in  Chillicothe,  Ohio.  Her 
father,  Dr.  Webb,  died  during  her  infancy,  and  her 
mother  then  removed  with  her  family  to  Delaware,  Ohio. 
Here  she  studied  in  the  Ohio  Wesleyan  University,  recit- 
ing with  her  brothers,  their  mother  having  taken  rooms 
in  the  college  for  the  benefit  of  her  children.  That 
mother's  influence  is  said  to  have  been  wonderfully  ex- 
cellent and  powerful.  Her  rare  common  sense  was  the 
inheritance  of  her  daughter.  Says  Miss  F.  E.  Willard:  — 

"  Two  years  at  the  Ohio  Wesleyan  University  were 
followed  by  several  years  of  study  in  the  Cincinnati 
Wesleyan  Female  College,  of  which  Rev.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
P.  B.  Wilbur  had  the  management.  Many  of  the  no- 
blest women  of  the  West,  foremost  in  missionary,  tem- 
perance, and  other  Christian  work,  were  graduated  here. 
Under  the  influence  of  these  gifted  educators  and  their 
successors,  the  daughters  of  Ohio  have  matured  charac- 
ters full  of  the  benignant  strength  which  discipline  of 
mind  can  only  give  when  Christ  in  the  heart  tempers 
and  mellows  the  clear  light  it  has  imparted.  One  of 
these  students,  a  life-long  friend  of  Mrs.  Hayes,  and  fore- 
most among  the  women  philanthropists  of  our  day,  writes 
as  follows :  — 

" '  Lucy  Webb  was  a  first-class  student.  I  was  a 
member  of  the  same  class  in  botany  and  other  studies 
with  her,  and  I  have  reason  to  recall  my  feeling  of  min- 
gled annoyance  and  admiration,  as  our  teacher,  Miss  De 
Forest,  would  turn  from  us  older  girls  to  Miss  Webb, 
who  sat  at  the  head  of  the  class,  and  get  from  her  a  clear 
analysis  of  the  flower  under  discussion,  or  the  correct 
transposition  of  some  involved  line  of  poetry.  Some- 
what of  this  accuracy  was  doubtless  due  to  the  fact  that 
she  had  been  trained  in  the  severe  drill  of  the  Ohio  Wes- 
leyan University.  She  remained  in  the  Ladies'  College 
of  Cincinnati  until  she  completed  its  course  of  study. 


MR>.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 


THE  WIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS.  105 

"  *  While  yet  in  her  teens,  she  met  Rutherford  B. 
Hayes,  who,  after  his  graduation  at  Gambier,  Ohio,  had 
opened  a  law  office  in  Cincinnati.'  " 

In  1852  they  were  married.  Through  all  the  progress 
of  her  husband,  in  military  and  civil  life,  she  was  a  help- 
meet. As  the  wife  of  a  Union  general  and  as  a  govern- 
or's wife,  Mrs.  Hayes  was  not  only  conspicuous,  but  emi- 
nently worthy  of  esteem.  She  ruled  as  a  republican 
queen  in  the  White  House,  her  receptions  there  without 
wine  provoking  remark,  but  showing  her  to  be  true  as 
steel  to  her  principles.  She  retired  to  more  private  life 
at  the  expiration  of  her  husband's  presidential  term, 
with  the  esteem  of  all,  and  the  warm  love  and  admiration 
of  her  sisters  in  the  temperance  ranks,  who  were  proud 
of  the  victory  which  the  calm  dignity  and  decision  of 
character  manifested  by  this  Christian  matron  had  se- 
cured. Colonel  Conwell,  in  his  "  Lives  of  the  Presi- 
dents," says,  "  Not  one  of  all  the  wives  of  our  Presidents 
was  more  universally  admired,  reverenced,  and  beloved 
than  is  Mrs.  Hayes,  and  no  one  has  done  more  than  she 
to  reflect  honor  upon  American  womanhood." 

LUCRETIA  R.  GARFIELD  followed  Mrs.  Hayes  into  the 
White  House,  as  the  wife  of  the  next  President,  Gen. 
James  A.  Garfield.  The  whole  nation  bears  her  tenderly 
and  compassionately  on  its  heart,  on  account  of  her 
great  sorrow  -in  the  terrible  sufferings  and  untimely 
death  of  her  husband,  the  second  martyred  President. 
Says  a  reliable  monthly  : l  — 

"  It  is  said  that  Mr.  Garfield's  domestic  relations  were 
of  the  happiest  kind;  that  his  wife  was  not  to  him 
merely  his  housekeeper  and  the  mother  of  his  children, 
but  an  intelligent,  congenial  companion,  who  helped  him 
in  his  struggle  with  the  world  and  contributed  to  his 
1  Phrenological  Journal,  November,  1881. 


106  WOMEN   OP  THE   CENTURY. 

great  success.  The  daughter  of  an  Ohio  farmer,  Lucre- 
tia  Rudolph  is  described  as  being  at  seventeen  'a  quiet, 
thoughtful  girl  of  singularly  sweet  and  refined  disposi- 
tion, fond  of  study  and  reading,  and  possessing  a  warm 
heart  and  a  mind  capable  of  steady  growth.'  At  this 
time  she  was  attending  the  Geauga  Academy  at  Chester, 
and  there  James  A.  Garfield,  a  boy  of  eighteen,  who 
was  working  his  own  way  toward  an  education,  met  her. 
Three  years  later  the  two  met  at  the  Eclectic  Institute, 
at  Hiram,  Portage  County,  Ohio,  where  Garfield  was 
still  the  hard-working  student.  A  mutual  attachment 
sprang  up  between  them,  which  culminated  in  their  mar- 
riage in  the  fall  of  1858,  Mr.  Garfield  being  then  teacher 
of  Latin  and  Greek.  .  .  .  And  the  farmer's  daughter 
was  well  fitted  to  be  a  teacher's  wife,  as  she  had  acquired 
a  knowledge  of  Latin,  Greek,  German,  and  French,  and 
was  well  informed  in  mathematics  and  general  litera- 
ture, being  able  to  assist  her  husband  in  the  preparation 
of  his  lectures." 

She  had  also  been  a  teacher  herself  in  Cleveland  and 
elsewhere.  Seven  children  were  born  to  them,  of  whom 
five  survived  to  become  inmates,  with  their  parents,  of 
the  White  House,  a  place  which  they  remember  only 
with  sadness,  for  there  the  mother  was  ill  almost  to 
death,  and  there  the  assassinated  father  lingered  in  ag- 
ony till  he  was  borne  to  Elberon,  where  he  died.  The 
details  of  his  assassination  will  long  remain  fresh  in  the 
public  mind,  and  the  admiration  which  his  devoted  wife 
won  as  his  faithful  nurse,  in  those  dark  hours,  will  never 
be  forgotten.  When  the  end  came, —  and  even  the 
Queen  of  England  sent  her  message  of  sympathy  and  her 
floral  token  of  respect,  —  the  whole  country  followed  her 
with  prayers  and  tears  to  his  resting-place  in  Cleveland, 
and  many  added  to  their  other  tokens  of  sympathy  large 


THE  WIVES   OF  THE  PRESIDENTS.  107 

contributions  in  money,  so  that  Mrs.  Garfield  should  not 
lack  for  the  means  to  educate  the  children  of  the  la- 
mented President,  or  to  make  comfortable  the  declining 
years  of  his  beloved  mother,  Mrs.  Eliza  Garfield,  to 
whom  he  owed  so  much,  inheriting  from  her  his  elo- 
quence and  love  of  study,  trained  by  her  in  the  path  of 
integrity  and  encouraged  by  her  in  all  his  laudable  ef- 
forts to  be  something  more  than  a  canal  boatman.  If 
this  chapter  was  devoted  to  the  mention  of  the  moth- 
ers, as  well  as  wives  of  the  Presidents,  there  would  be 
many  pages  in  reference  to  "the  little  white-haired 
mother,"  whom  James  Abram  Garfield  kissed  when  he 
turned  from  the  Bible  he  had  kissed  as  he  took  the  oath 
of  inauguration;  the  mother  with  whom  every  heart 
sympathized  as  she  sat  in  her  country  home  at  Mentor, 
Ohio,  and  listened  for  news  from  her  suffering  "  boy." 
When  those  solemn  midnight  bells  waked  the  nation  to 
the  knowledge  that  their  President  had  "  put  on  immor- 
tality," millions  of  sympathetic  hearts  turned  towards 
his  aged  mother,  as  well  as  to  his  heroic  wife ;  and  the 
names  of  Eliza  and  Lucretia  Garfield  are  now  "  house- 
hold words  "  in  every  Christian  home  throughout  the 
land. 

There  remains  at  this  writing  (1882)  but  one  more 
name  to  mention,  and  that  is  the  name  of  ELLA  L. 
ARTHUR,  the  wife  of  the  Vice-President,  Chester  A. 
Arthur,  who  succeeded  to  the  chair  of  state  so  sadly 
vacated  by  President  Garfield.  Though  she  died  previ- 
ous to  his  nomination  as  Vice-President,  and,  of  course, 
never  occupied  the  White  House,  yet  she  is  none  the 
less  to  be  mentioned  among  the  wives  of  the  Presidents. 

Mrs.  Arthur  was  the  daughter  of  Lieutenant-Com- 
mander Herndon  of  the  United  States  Navy.  She  was 
married  to  Chester  A.  Arthur  in  1853,  and  died  in  New 


108  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUEY. 

York  city,  January  12,  1880,  leaving  two  children,  a 
son  and  a  daughter.  She  is  spoken  of  by  Colonel  Con- 
well  as  "  a  most  excellent  example  of  all  that  is  sweet- 
est and  best  in  the  life  of  American  women." l  Had  she 
lived  to  have  shared  the  whole  public  life  of  her  husband, 
she  would  doubtless  have  graced  the  White  House  and 
Washington  society  like  her  predecessors.  That  in  spirit 
she  is  with  him  there  may  be  supposed,  when  the  "  Chi- 
cago News  "  informs  us  that  "  Mrs.  Arthur's  room  in  her 
beautiful  New  York  mansion,  in  which  she  died,  has 
never  been  disturbed ;  her  needle  is  still  threaded  and 
sticking  in  a  bit  of  delicate  embroidery  in  her  work-bas- 
ket undisturbed ;  nor  will  her  husband  allow  any  one  to 
change  the  room  in  any  of  its  furniture  arrangements. 
There  is  the  little  rocker  beside  the  standard  work-bas- 
ket, and  the  little  n£glig6  crocheted  slippers.  There 
stands  her  desk,  with  the  ink  dried  on  her  pearl-handled 
pen,  which  she  had  hastily  put  aside  from  some  interrup- 
tion, never  to  use  again  on  earth.  Her  favored  books 
are  placed  in  a  tiny  case,  with  a  marker  in  one  of  them, 
just  as  she  left  it.  On  the  table  are  placed  each  morn- 
ing, by  orders  of  the  President,  a  bunch  of  her  favorite 
flowers.  Even  her  favorite  perfumes  are  in  the  toilet 
bottles  at  her  dressing-case,  and  in  the  wardrobe  hang 
her  dresses.  This  room  is  bright  and  sunny,  her  former 
maid  keeping  it  neat,  and  arranging  the  flowers  in  the 
vases,  and  attending  the  canaries  in  the  window,  but 
never  altering  the  places  of  the  furniture,  books,  etc. 
This  room  is  a  place  where  the  President  takes  much 
comfort  in  reading  and  meditation,  and  they  who  know 
say  that  the  bit  of  needlework  has  been  many  times  wet 
with  tears  by  the  husband." 

1  Lives  of  the  Presidents,  page  599. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


WOMEN  LEADEES   IN  SOCIETY. 

Martha  Jefferson  Randolph  —  Mrs.  Donelson  —  Mrs.  Andrew  Jackson, 
jun. — Angelica  Van  Buren  —  Abigail  Fillmore  —  Harriet  Lane  — 
Martha  Patterson — Mary  Stover — Sarah  Livingston  Jay — Elizabeth 
Temple  Winthrop  —  Mercy  Warren  —  Hannah  Winthrop,  &c. 

"  So  the  gay  lady,  witk  excessive  care, 
Borrows  the  pride  of  land,  of  sea,  and  air: 
Furs,  pearls,  and  plumes  the  glittering  thing  displays, 
Dazzles  our  eyes,  and  easy  hearts  betrays." 

GAY'S  RURAL  SPORTS. 

"  She  maketh  herself  coverings  of  tapestry :  her  clothing  is  silk  and  purple."  — 
PKOV.  xxxi.  32. 

AMONG  the  valuable  books  which  Mrs.  E.  F.  Ellet 
has  prepared,  there  is  one  entitled  "The  Queens 
of  American  Society,"  to  whose  name  exception  was 
taken ;  which  exception  she  meets  in  her  Preface  to  the 
book  in  the  following  manner  :    "  Some  friends  have 


110  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTI/it*. 

objected,  in  advance,  to  the  title  of  this  volume,  on  the 
ground  that  the  term  *  queens,'  as  applied  to  the  subjects, 
seems  out  of  place  in  the  society  of  a  republic.  But, 
if  we  call  to  mind  how  continually  and  universally  the 
expression  is  used  in  ordinary  conversation,  it  must  be 
conceded  that  no  other  would  do  as  well.  We  are  all 
accustomed  to  hear  of  any  leading  lady,  that  she  is  a 
'  perfect  queen,'  the  '  queen  of  society,'  a  '  reigning 
belle,'  the  '  queen '  of  the  occasion,  &c.  The  phrase  is 
in  every  one's  mouth,  and  no  one  is  misled  by  it.  The 
sway  of  beauty  and  fashion,  too,  is  essentially  royal : 
there  is  nothing  republican  about  it.  Every  belle,  every 
leader  of  the  t o n,  is  despotic  in  proportion  to  her  power ; 
and  the  quality  of  imperial  authority  is  absolutely 
inseparable  from  her  state.  I  maintain,  therefore,  that 
no  title  is  so  just  and  appropriate  to  the  women  illus- 
trated in  this  work  as  that  of  *  queens.'  " 

Mrs.  Ellet  lias  a  right  to  her  opinion :  so  has  the 
author  of  this  book  to  hers ;  and  they  so  differ,  that 
the  title  of  this  chapter  mentions  not  "  queens,"  but 
"  women  leaders,"  in  society.  And,  in  order  to  be  true 
to  my  own  convictions,  I  must  protest  against  the  too 
prevalent  custom  of  exalting  women  who  are  butter- 
flies of  fashion  above  those  who  are  bees  in  the  social 
hive,  -as  is  too  often  done.  The  notice  which  Mrs. 
Ellet's  book  received  from  "  The  New  Covenant "  con- 
veys the  sentiment  I  would  express.  It  is  forcible  and 
just,  and  is  probably  from  the  fearless  pen  of  that 
better  than  queen  in  American  society,  the  cultured 
writer  and  speaker,  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore.  This 
critic  says,  — 

"  With  a  portion  of  this  book  we  are  pleased  and 
interested.  The  sketches  of  Mrs.  Washington,  Mrs. 
Hancock,  Mrs.  Madison,  and  other  estimable  and  his- 


WOMEN   LEADERS   IN   SOCIETY.  Ill 

toric  women,  are  exceedingly  fascinating.  Their  story 
has  often  been  narrated ;  but  it  never  palls,  and  loses 
nothing  by  repetition.  But  in  other  portions  we  are 
obliged  to  protest  against  its  tendency,  which  is  towards 
emphasizing  the  value  of  much  that  is  fictitious  and  arti- 
ficial in  life.  Many  of  the  *  queens '  of  this  book  are 
women  who  have  'led  the  fashions;'  who  have  excelled 
in  the  splendor  of  their  receptions,  the  magnificence  of 
their  balls ;  who  could  wear  the  most  extravagant  dia- 
monds and  pearls,  display  the  heaviest  velvets,  the  rarest 
laces,  the  costliest  jewels  ;  who  could  give  parties  where 
'  the  dresses  cost  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  the  jewelry 
half  a  million.'  One  lady  was  distinguished  because 
she  '  could  entertain  twenty  gentlemen  at  once ; '  and 
another,  because  '  she  received  sixteen  offers  of  marriage 
before  she  was  eighteen.'  The  daughters  of  the  '  first 
families  of  Virginia,'  who  were  among  these  *  queens,' 
were  taught  fine  embroidery,  and  the  care  of  their 
complexions.  'No  high-born  maiden  would  "spread 
her  hand  "  by  turning  the  door-knob,  or  touching  the 
tongs,  or  handling  a  heavy  object.'  These  ladies  had 
'  family  '  and  '  pedigree '  and  sang  pur  to  boast  of : 
they  were  noticed  at  courts,  were  introduced  to  Vic- 
toria and  Eugenie,  had  personal  charms  and  fascinating 
arts,  which  they  made  liberal  use  of.  Is  this  a  life  to 
be  held  up  for  emulation  to  the  women  of  this  earnest 
nineteenth  century  ?  Shall  the  women  of  this  country 
be  incited  to  live  for  the  empty  aim  of  obtaining  com- 
pliments from  foreign  courts,  of  being  leaders  of  fashion, 
achievers  of  social  triumphs,  senseless,  useless,  frivo- 
lous, gilded  butterflies?  .  .  .  We  do  not  undervalue 
family,  wealth,  nor  social  distinction.  They  are  the 
good  gifts  of  God,  and  should  be  nobly  employed ;  but 
when  prostituted  to  low  aims,  to  the  purchase  of  selfish 


112  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

and  unworthy  gratifications,  the  example  is  to  be  dep- 
recated, not  made  a  boast  of,  nor  held  up  for  emulation. 
The  book  is  illustrated  with  a  dozen,  or  more,  finely- 
engraved  steel  portraits  of  beautiful  women,  and  is  very 
pleasant  reading,  even  when  you  do  not  sympathize 
with  the  characters  portrayed." 

With  this  editorial  expression,  every  high-toned,  lite- 
rary, and  scientific  and  religious  woman  will  concur. 
But  it  is  fair,  also,  to  note  that  Mrs.  Ellet  herself  says 
in  her  Preface,  "  I  trust  the  candid  reader  will  admit 
that  the  women  most  prominent  in  our  society  have 
had  better  than  frivolous  claims  to  distinction;  that 
they  have  possessed  high  moral  worth  and  superior 
intellect.  Many  of  them  have  devoted  their  influence 
and  efforts  to  works  of  charity.  It  is  the  blessing  of 
New  York,  —  so  justly  reproached  as  the  temple  of 
monejr-worship,  —  that  her  most  elevated  society  is"  per- 
vaded by  a  noble  spirit  of  benevolence,  and  the  refine- 
ment of  taste  growing  out  of  mental  culture.  A  line 
of  distinction  is  drawn  between  the  class  that  confers 
honor  on  the  country,  and  mere  shallow,  vulgar  pre- 
tenders, whose  lavish  display  of  wealth  is  their  only 
merit."  The  readers  of  Mrs.  Ellet's  book,  if  otherwise 
informed  concerning  the  private  lives  of  those  who 
shone  in  public,  will  be  able  to  judge  how  far  that  dis- 
crimination extended. 

Among  the  many  who  are  admiringly  mentioned  as 
adorning  society  in  the  early  part  of  the  first  American 
century  is  MARTHA  JEFFEESON  RANDOLPH,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  the  wife  of  Thomas  Mann 
Randolph,  afterwards  governor  of  Virginia.  This  lady, 
when  a  young  girl,  was  intrusted  in  Paris  to  the  care 
of  Mrs.  Adams,  and  was  kind  in  manners,  and  pleasant 
in  conversation.  The  scope  and  style  of  her  attain- 


WOMEN  LEADERS   IN   SOCIETY.  113 

ments  may  be  gathered  from  the  directions  of  her 
father  to  her  teacher,  Mrs.  Trist  of  Philadelphia :  "  From 
eight  to  ten,  practise  music  ;  from  ten  to  one,  dance  one 
day,  and  draw  another ;  from  one  to  two,  draw  on  the 
day  you  dance,  and  write  a  letter  next  day ;  from  three 
to  four,  read  French ;  from  four  to  five,  exercise  your- 
self in  music;  from  five  to  bedtime, read  English,  wiite, 
&c."  This  is  somewhat  different  from  the  routine  of 
study  Margaret  Fuller  knew ;  but  perhaps  it  was  all 
that  seemed  necessary  for  one  who  was  not  to  engage 
in  literary  pursuits,  nor  to  stamp  indelibly  her  spirit 
upon  the  "women  of  America.  But  Mrs.  Randolph  was 
undoubtedly  a  woman  of  amiable  character ;  for  John 
Randolph,  who  was  the  political  enemy  of  her  father 
and  her  husband,  called  her  "  the  sweetest  woman  in 
America." 

Mrs.  Randolph  was  one  of  the  "  Ladies  of  the  White 
House  ;  "  and  thus  I  am  reminded  to  speak  of  another, 
who  in  later  years  led  society  in  Washington  as  the  mis- 
tress of  the  Executive  Mansion,  but  has  not  of  course 
been  mentioned  among  the  wives  of  the  presidents,  — 
Mrs.  EMILY  DONELSON,  the  niece  of  Pres.  Jackson's 
wife.  The  president  himself  settled  the  question  of 
precedence  between  herself  and  her  relative,  the  wife 
of  Andrew  Jackson,  jun.,and  installed  Emily  as  hostess 
of  the  White  House.  It  is  said  that  in  person  she  resem- 
bled Mary,  Queen  of  Scots.  She  had  exquisite  taste 
in  dress,  and,  "  of  lively  imagination,  she  was  quick  at 
repartee,  and  had  that  gift  possessed  by  so  few  talkers, 
of  listening  gracefully.  Thrown  in  contact  with  the 
brightest  and  most  cultivated  intellects  of  the  day,  she 
sustained  her  part ;  and  her  favor  was  eagerly  sought 
by  the  learned  and  political.  A  foreign  minister  once 
said  to  her,  '  Madam,  you  dance  with  the  grace  of  a 


114  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

Parisian.  I  can  hardly  realize  you  were  educated  in 
Tennessee.'  — '  Count,  you  forget,'  was  the  spirited  reply, 
'  that  grace  is  a  cosmopolite,  and,  like  a  wild  flower,  is 
much  oftener  found  in  the  woods  than  in  the  streets  of 
a  city.'  "J 

The  wife  of  Andrew  Jackson,  juu.,  made  her  entree  at 
the  White  House  as  a  bride,  and  won  the  admiration  of 
all  from  her  mingled  dignity  and  affability.  She  was  u 
Mits  YORKE  of  Philadelphia.  For  years  she  presided  at 
the  Hermitage,  as  Gen.  Jackson's  home  was  termed ;  and 
the  crowds  who  gathered  there  were  as  blessed  by  her 
society  and  welcome  as  by  that  of  the  old  hero  whose 
fame  attracted  them. 

ANGELICA  VAN  BUREN  may  be  termed  a  leader  in 
societ}r,  since  she  presided  at  the  White  House  when 
her  husband's  father  was  president.  She  was  a  lady  of 
South  Carolina,  and  in  early  life  enjoyed  those  advan- 
tages for  education  and  accomplishment  which  well 
fitted  her  for  the  sphere  she  was  later  to  fill.  Mrs. 
Halloway  bears  testimony  that  "  her  entire  exiatence 
has  been  one  of  prosperity ;  but  it  has  not  rendered  her 
selfish:  it  has  rather,  on  the  contrary,  induced  the 
employment  of  her  gifts  in  behalf  of  others." 

The  White  House  had  a  young  lady  as  its  mistress 
during  the  presidency  of  Millard  Fillmore, — his  only 
daughter,  MARY  ABIGAIL  FILLMORE,  who  was  well 
fitted  by  education,  and  a  long  residence  in  Washington, 
to  adorn  the  high  station  she  was  called  to  fill,  and  who 
acquitted  herself  with  great  dignity.  She  was  a  fine 
scholar.  French,  German,  and  Spanish  were  well 
known  to  her ;  and  she  had  a  taste  for  sculpture,  fostered 
by  her  loved  schoolmate,  Harriet  Hosmer.  She  was  a 

1  Mrs.  Halloway'a  Ladies  of  tlje  White  House. 


WOMEN   LEADERS   Etf   SOCIETY.  »      1 

pupil,  at  one  time,  of  the  celebrated  school  of  Mrs. 
Sedgwick,  in  Lenox,  Mass.,  and  afterward  of  the  State 
Normal  School ;  and,  to  her  honor  be  it  spoken,  she 
taught  in  a  public  school  of  Buffalo  till,  her  father 
needed  hei  attendance  in  the  White  House.  She  died 
suddenly  of  cholera  in  1854,  while  on  a  visit  to  her 
grandfather,  in  Aurora.  Her  name  is  cherished  as  that 
of  one  worthy  to  lead  in  the  most  refined  and  educated 
circles,  where  dress  and  fashion  are  subordinate  to  cul- 
ture and  good  sense. 

HARRIET  LANE  was  a  leader  in  society  whom  none 
could  criticise.  Being  the  favorite  niece  of  Pres. 
Buchanan,  she  was  at  the  White  House,  its  admirable 
mistress,  winning  the  praise  of  the  many  whom  she 
assisted  to  entertain.  Early  left  an  orphan,  she  had 
been  educated  under  her  uncle's  direction;  was  abroad 
with  him  when  he  represented  our  country  at  the  court 
of  St.  James ;  and  was  a  favorite  with  the  queen  and 
the  royal  family.  And  it  is  written  of  her  (who  is. 
now  the  wife  of  Henry  Elliott  Johnston)  that  she 
retired  from  the  White  House,  "  leaving  behind  a  memory 
all  pleasantness,  and  a  record  of  untarnished  lustre. 
Her  lofty  place  had  not  spoiled  her  ;  for  the  nobleness 
of  her  inner  life  recognized  no  superiority  of  the  ex- 
ternal badges  of  greatness.  In  its  fullest,  finest  sense, 
she  had  been  a  belle,  and  withal  a  very  beautiful  and 
good  woman." 

The  White  House  had,  a  few  years  after,  another 
lady  as  its  mistress,,  whose  claim  to  be  a  leader  in 
society  could  be  based  upon  personal  excellence  as  well 
as  upon  that  distinction;  viz.,  MARTHA  PATTERSON, 
the  daughter  of  Pres.  Johnson.  She  was  reared  in  the 
mountain  region  of  East  Tennessee.  She  was  early 
distinguished  by  her  industry  as  a  student ;  and,  in 


116  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

domestic  duties,  "she  never  had  time  to  play."  She 
was  the  eldest  of  five  children ;  and  her  mother  needed 
her  efficient  help,  which  she  always  rendered  cheerfully. 
While  her  father  was  a  member  of  Congress,  she  was 
placed  at  school  in  Georgetown.  In  1856  she  married 
Judge  Patterson,  and  visited  Nashville,  where  her 
father  was  then  governor  of  the  State.  When,  by  the 
death  of  Pres.  Lincoln,  her  father  became  president, 
she  presided  at  his  home  in  the  place  of  her  invalid 
mother.  Among  other  words  of  deserved  commenda- 
tion, Mrs.  Halloway  says  of  her,  "  Simple  but  elegant 
in  her  apparel,  never  descending  to  a  disregard  of 
place,  yet  not  carried  away  by  the  follies  of  fashion, 
Mrs.  Patterson  has  pleased  the  eye,  and  gratified  the 
pride,  of  all  who  felt  an  interest  in  her  success.  Golden 
opinions  of  her  taste  were  won  by  the  rich  simplicity 
of  her  toilet  on  every  public  occasion ;  and  the  beauty 
of  her  dress  consisted  always  in  the  artless,  unassuming 
manner  of  the  wearer." 

Her  sister,  MAEY  STOVEE,  shared  with  Mrs.  Patter- 
son the  honors  of  the  White  House  and  the  name  of  a 
leader  in  society.  "  Mrs.  Stover,  unlike  her  sister,  is  a 
blonde,  with  very  light  auburn  hair,  and  features  in 
keeping  with  her  temperament."  She  is  "  slight  and 
tall,  with  much  repose  of  manner."  She  was  no  leader 
in  society  from  taste,  but  simply  from  position;  and 
even  that  might  not  be  conceded  by  those  who  consider 
a  great  regard  for  fashion  and  dress  and  worldly  pleas- 
ure necessary  in  a  society  leader.  Mrs.  Stover  was  a 
woman  of  genuine  kindness  -of  heart.  "  Tried  and 
proved  true  in  the  high  station  of  a  president's  daugh- 
ter, she  will  never  be  found  wanting  in  any  position  in 
life;  and  into  her  retirement  the  kind  wishes  and 
sincere  thanks  of  the  American  people  follow  her." 


WOMEN  LEADERS  IN   SOCIETY.  117 

The  ladies  thus  far  mentioned  owe  much  of  their 
celebrity  to  the  fact  that  they  presided  at  the  capital 
of  the  nation.  Other  women  there  have  been  since  the 
dawn  of  our  first  century,  as  in  colonial  days,  who  were 
gentlewomen  in  the  truest  sense,  and  therefore  worthy 
leaders  in  society.  The  limits  of  this  chapter  allow 
but  the  merest  mention  of  them ;  but  the  book  of  Mrs. 
Ellet,  before  mentioned,  and  the  pages  of  American 
history,  whereon  their  husbands  or  fathers  are  men- 
tioned, will  help  one  to  understand  their  position  and 
attainments ;  while  the  biographies  of  the  husbands  of 
some  of  them  will  assist  in  the  appreciation  of  their 
social  qualities  and  success.  SAEAH  LIVINGSTON  JAY, 
wife  of  the  minister  to  Spain  in  1779,  was  a  leader,  of 
whom  the  daughter  of  John  Adams,  writing  from  Paris 
in  1785,  said,  "  Every  person  who  knew  her  when  here 
bestows  many  encomiums  upon  Mrs.  Jay.  Madame  de 
Lafayette  said  she  was  well  acquainted  with  her,  and 
very  fond  of  her,  adding  that  Mrs.  Jay  and  she  thought 
alike,  that  pleasure  might  be  found  abroad,  but  happi- 
ness only  at  home,  in  the  society  of  one's  family  and 
friends." 

ELIZABETH  TEMPLE  WINTHKOP  was  the  reigning 
belle  of  Boston  in  1786.  Her  husband,  the  governor 
of  Massachusetts,  "possessed  an  ample  fortune;  and 
they  lived  in  style,  exercising  a  generous  hospitality, 
and  receiving  at  their  table  most  strangers  of  considera- 
tion who  came  to  the  vicinity." 

MEKCY  WAEEEN  was  a  daughter  of  James  Otis  of 
Barnstable,  Mass.  The  Otis  family  first  settled  in 
Hingham,  a  quiet,  ancient  town  of  that  State.  She 
married  a  merchant,  and  resided  on  a  farm,  continuing 
her  literary  pursuits,  but  receiving,  also,  distinguished 
guests,  —  Washington,  Lee,  Gates,  and  other  officers. 


118  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

Mrs.  Adams  was  her  lifelong  friend.  "  Seldom  has  a 
woman  in  any  age,"  says  Mrs.  Ellet,  "  acquired  such 
ascendency  by  the  mere  force  of  a  powerful  intellect ; 
and  her  influence  continued  to  the  close  of  her  life." 
Her  friend,  HANNAH  WINTHROP  of  Cambridge,  Mass., 
deserves  to  be  mentioned  also  in  this  connection.  Both 
women  had  much  influence  on  their  times. 

Mrs.  KNOX  led  also  in  the  society  of  those  days  which 
tried  men's  souls,  and  women's  too.  She  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  last  secretary  of  the  Province  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  and  was  said,  by  the  Due  de  la  Rochefoucauld 
Liancourt,  to  possess  "  sprightliness,  knowledge,  a  good 
heart,  and  an  excellent  understanding." 

"  The  daughters  of  William  Sheaffe  of  Boston  were 
noted  for  beauty  and  fashion."  Susanna  eloped  with 
Capt.  Molesworth,a  nephew  of  Lord  Ponsonby,  who  was 
in  command  of  the  British  troops  landing  at  Boston. 
Margaret  married  John  R.  Livingston,  then  a  Boston 
merchant.  Lafayette  admired  her  ;  and  she  was  said  to 
be  so  handsome,  no  one  could  take  her  picture.  The 
impartial  sun  was  not  then  known  as  an  artist.  Helen 
married  James  Lovell,  an  officer  in  the  naval  service. 
At  thirteen  she  wrote  a  poem  in  answer  to  the  question, 
"  What  is  religion  ?  " 

DOROTHY  QUINCY  HANCOCK  was  the  daughter  of 
Judge  Edmund  Quincy,  and  married  the  governor  of 
Massachusetts,  who  was  afterwards  president  of  the 
first  Congress.  She  was  the  undaunted  woman  who 
ordered  her  servants  to  milk  the  cows  pastured  on  Bos- 
ton Common,  for  the  accommodation  of  her  guests  from 
the  French  fleet.  The  anecdotes  told  by  Mrs.  Ellet  of 
her  and  her  husband  are  of  considerable  interest  in  these 
centennial  days,  but  mainly  prove  them  to  have  been 
kindly  and  intelligent  people  of  the  bon  vivant  sort. 


WOMEN  LEADERS   IN  SOCIETY. 

CATHERINE  GREENE  was  a  leader  of  society  in  her 
day,  as  the  wife  of  Gen.  Nathaniel  Greene  of  Revolu- 
tionary memory  ;  but  she  is  much  more  worthy  of  note 
as  the  patron  of  Eli  Whitney,  and  therefore  the  one 
who  helped  introduce  the  cotton-gin  to  the  world. 

"  The  incident  of  her  quitting  her  own  house  when 
A  iron  Burr  claimed  her  hospitality,  after  his  duel  with 
Hamilton,  leaving  the  house  for  his  use,  and  only  return 
ing  to  it  after  his  departure,  illustrates  her  generous  and 
impulsive  character.  In  her  later  years  she  retained 
her  singular  power  of  fascination,  and  would  hold  a 
company  in  breathless  attention  with  her  winning  tones 
and  brilliant  sketches  of  character,  or  tales  of  adven- 
ture. She  had,  in  truth,  a  faculty  of  charming  all  who 
approached  her." 

MARY  WOOSTER  was  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Clapp,  the 
president  of  Yale  ColTege,  and  was  only  sixteen  when 
married  to  Gen.  David  Wooster,  who  was  lolled  in 
Connecticut  during  the  Revolutionary  War.  She  was 
brilliant  in  conversation,  beautiful,  well  educated,  and 
religious. 

SARAH  THOMPSON — the  Countess  Rumford  —  was 
the  daughter  of  Benjamin  Thompson,  who  was  made  a 
count  by  the  Elector  of  Bavaria.  Her  grandfather  was 
Rev.  Timothy  Walker,  the  first  clergyman  in  Concord, 
N.H.  She  inherited  her  father's  title  ;  never  married  ; 
died  in  Concord,  N.H.,  in  1852.  "  She  had  considerable 
property  saved  from  her  father's  estates,  with  a  pension 
of  nearly  one  thousand  dollars  a  year  from  the  Bavarian 
Government  for  the  services  rendered  by  her  father. 
This  she  bestowed  chiefly  in  charity,  and,  dying  at 
seventy-eight,  left  fifteen  thousand  dollars  for  an 
asylum  at  Concord  for  widows  and  female  orphans." 
She  was  more  truly  one  who  mingled  much  in  foreign 


120  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTUHY. 

society  than  a  leader  in  her  own  land ;  but  I  mention 
her  here  as  an  American  woman  of  peculiar  connections, 
whose  name  will  not  soon  be  forgotten,  because  of  her 
bequests. 

ANNE  BINGHAM  was  a  Philadelphia  belle,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Thomas  Willing,  and  grand-daughter  of  the  first 
mayor  of  Philadelphia.  At  sixteen  she  married  William 
Bingham,  and  went  abroad ;  attracting  much  attention 
at  the  court  of  Louis  XVI.  She  then  went  to  England, 
where,  it  is  said,  "  her  elegance  and  beauty  attracted  more 
admiration  than,  perhaps,  was  willingly  expressed  in  the 
old  court  of  George  the  Third."  Immense  wealth  en- 
abled her  to  live  in  luxury ;  and  thus  her  charms  were 
displayed  in  society  so  as  to  win  a  recognition.  She 
returned  to  Philadelphia,  where  her  husband  built  a 
magnificent  house,  and  she  led  society.  "  Her  style 
illustrated  all  that  was  imposing  and  superb  in  the  social 
life ;  and  her  acknowledged  judgment  and  taste  in  dress, 
and  in  the  arrangements  of  her  house,  her  influence  over 
all  with  whom  she  came  in  contact,  the  splendors  with 
which  she  was  ever  surrounded,  and  the  aristocratic 
character  of  her  parties,  gave  her  a  celebrity  which  be- 
came historical  in  thj  annals  of  higher  social  life  in 
America." 1 

ELIZABETH  GKAEME  FEBGTJSON  was  the  daughtei 
cf  Sir  William  Keith,  the  governor  of  Pennsylvania. 
She  married  a  Scotch  gentleman,  ten  years  her  junior ; 
ind  political  differences  led  to  their  separation ;  for  she 
was  a  patriot,  and  he  espoused  the  royal  cause.  She 
presided  in  her  father's  house,  who  was  a  physician 
(Dr.  Thomas  Graeme),  and  collector  of  the  port.  Her 
talents  and  accomplishments  rendered  her  home,  "  the 
Carpenter  Mansion,"  attractive  and  celebrated. 

1  Queens  of  American  Society. 


"WOMEN   LEADERS    IN   SOCIETY.  121 

SAKAH  BACHE  was  the  only  daughter  of  the  phi- 
losopher and  statesman,  Dr.  Benjamin  Franklin,  and 
was  born  in  Philadelphia  in  September,  1744.  She 
was  a  zealous  republican,  and  was  prominent  in  the 
best  society.  Her  house  was  the  rendezvous  for  the 
committee  superintending  the  making  of  shirts  for 
the  army.  In  1792  she  accompanied  her  husband, 
Richard  Bache,  to  whom  she  was  married  in  1767,  to 
England;  and  two  years  afterward  they  settled  on  a 
farm  near  the  Delaware,  where  they  exercised  un- 
bounded hospitality  for  many  years. 

REBECCA  FRANKS,  the  daughter  of  a  wealthy  Jewish 
merchant,  was  distinguished  for  beauty,  intelligence, 
and  wit.  She  married  Lieut.-Gen.  Sir  Henry  Johnston, 
and  lived  abroad.  When  Gen.  Scott  visited  her  long 
years  afterward,  she  exclaimed,  "  I  have  gloried  in 
my  rebel  countrymen !  "  She  evidently  felt  that  the 
women  of  Revolutionary  days  should  have  been  loyal 
to  the  stars  and  stripes. 

Mrs.  ANNIS  STOCKTON  was  a  patriot,  —  the  wife  of 
one,  and  the  mother-in-law  of  another,  signer  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  She  was  called  "the 
Duchess  "  for  her  elegance  and  dignity.  Her  daughter 
Julia  became  the  wife  of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Benjamin 
Rush. 

MARY  ALSOP  KING  was  the  only  child  of  a  wealthy 
New  York  merchant,  who  was  a  member  of  the  first 
Continental  Congress.  She  was  noted  for  beauty  and 
an  unspoiled  nature,  and  at  sixteen  married  Rufus 
King. 

CATHERINE  SCHTTYLER  was  the  only  daughter  of  a 
great  landholder,  and  the  wife  of  Gen.  Philip  Schuyler. 
She  was  remarkable  for  her  vigorous  intellect  and  good 
judgment ;  and  many  instances  of  her  heroic  spirit  are 


122  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUEY. 

recorded.  "  Her  social  influence  was  widely  recog- 
nized, and  was  transmitted  to  her  accomplished  dangh- 
-ters.  The  second  of  these,  Elizabeth,  married  Alexan- 
der Hamilton  in  December,  1780. 

Mrs.  WILSON  was  the  daughter  of  Col.  Charles 
Stewart,  and  was  celebrated  in  New  Jersey,  both  in  the 
days  of  her  girlhood  and  widowhood.  "  In  her  jour- 
neys t:  and  from  the  camp,  Mrs.  Washington  stopped 
to  visit  Mrs.  Wilson.  During  the  presidency  of  Wash- 
ington, when  Mrs.  Wilson  came  to  Philadelphia  with 
her  daughter,  and  entered  society,  she  was  distinguished 
by  particular  attentions  from  his  family.  .  .  .  For  fif- 
teen years  after  her  father's  death,  she  devoted  her  time 
to  the  settlement  of  his  large  estates,  and  the  care  of 
two  orphan  nephews,  one  of  whom  was  the  distin- 
guished missionary  and  author,  Rev.  Charles  Stewart. 
In  1808  she  removed  to  Cooperstown,  N.Y. ;  but  her 
last  years  were  spent  at  '  The  Lakelands,'  the  beautiful 
residence  of  her  daughter,  near  that  town.  Hers 
was  a  lovely  close  of  life,  universally  respected  and 
honored :  it  might  better  be  called  a  ripening  for  im- 
mortality." ! 

COKNELTA  BEEKMAN  was  born  in  1752,  and  lived  to 
the  great  age  of  ninety -five  years.  Her  birthplace  was 
on  the  banks  of  the  Croton,  in  the  Cortlandt  manor 
house ;  her  place  of  death,  the  old  manor  house  in 
Tarrytown,  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson.  "  Her  social 
qualities  and  unbounded  hospitality  made  her  famous 
throughout  the  country.  .  .  .  She  was  known  as  an 
accomplished  lady  of  the  old  school.  With  steadfast 
principles,  she  had  a  lofty  sense  of  honor ;  with  force 
of  will  and  stern  resolution,  a  heart  alive  to  all  kindly 
feelings.  In  her  prime  she  was  noted  for  beauty  of 

1  Queens  of  American  Society. 


WOMEN   LEADERS   IN   SOCIETY.  123 

person,  refinement,  and  dignified  courtesy;  while  hei 
conversation  was  brilliant  and  interesting.  Amid  her 
stores  of  anecdote  were  thrilling  tales  of  the  olden  time. 
Her  mental  faculties  were  unimpaired  to  the  last,  though 
her  sight  failed.  Calmly  she  awaited  death,  with  the 
clear  faith  of  a  Christian,  and,  while  counting  the  fail- 
ing beats  of  her  pulse  with  one  hand,  signed  her  name 
with  the  other,  shortly  before  she  breathed  her  last." 

CATHERINE  FIELD,  the  grand-daughter  of  Mrs.  Beek- 
man,  had  the  blood  of  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
families  in  America  in  her  veins.  She  was  carefully 
educated,  and  has  hospitably  entertained  her  friends  in 
New  York,  and  devoted  herself  to  the  care  of  her  two 
children.  Though  not  really  distinguished  in  any 
sphere  of  public  life,  she  is  a  worthy  wife  and  mother  ; 
and  one  can  but  respect  domestic  virtues  and  social 
qualities. 

SUSAN  RUDD,  afterward  the  wife  of  Judge  Hunting- 
ton  of  Indiana,  was  of  the  Carroll  family  of  Maryland. 
She  was  educated  in  a  convent,  and  was  accomplished 
in  music,  and  a  good  linguist.  She  married,  when  but 
sixteen,  a  Mr.  Fitzhugh ;  but  her  husband  soon  died, 
and  she  married  Judge  Huntington.  She  was  the 
mother  of  five  children,  and  died  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
two.  "  This  lovely  woman  had  a  ruling  influence  in 
social  circles,  but  one  more  valuable  in  the  hearts  of 
those  nearest  to  her." 

PAMELA  WILLIAMS  married  Gen.  Jacob  Brown,  at 
the  age  of  eighteen.  "  Her  house  was  the  centre  of  a 
polished  coterie" 

SALLEB  WARD  was  a  belle  in  Kentucky  and  the 
West,  cradled  in  luxury,  and  a  leader  of  fashionable 
society.  Mrs.  Ellet's  pages  glow  with  her  praises  and 
descriptions  of  her  dress,  —  a  matter  of  no  small  impor- 


124  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

tance  to  society  lovers,  and  of  minor  importance  with 
others. 

ELEANOR  PARKE  CUSTIS,  the  grand-daughter  of 
Lad}'  Washington.  She  married  Lawrence  Lewis  on 
the  birthday  of  "  the  Chief,"  1799.  She  was  worthy 
of  her  relationship  to  George  and  Martha  Washington. 

MAKCIA  VAN  NESS  married  Hon.  John  P.  Van  Ness, 
at  the  age  of  twenty,  and  became  a  resident  of  Wash- 
ington ;  and  "  their  home  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
and  agreeable  in  the  capital."  She  was  the  first  Amer- 
ican woman  buried  with  public  honors,  her  husband 
being  at  that  time  mayor  of  Washington. 

"  One  of  the  intimate  friends  of  Mrs.  Van  Ness,  and 
one  called  by  her  '  the  most  popular  woman  who  was 
ever  in  Washington,'  was  the  wife  of  Levi  Woodbury, 
secretary  of  the  navy.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Hon. 
Asa  Clapp  of  Portland,  the  most  wealthy  man,  at  that 
time,  in  the  State  of  Maine." 

"  The  niece  of  Mrs.  Van  Ness  of  Washington  was 
celebrated  as  a  belle,  universally  admired  in  the  society 
of  the  capital  in  the  winter  of  1828-29.  She  was  Miss 
CORNELIA  VAN  NESS,  the  daughter  of  Cornelius  P.  Van 
Ness,  the  eminent  chief  justice,  and  governor  of  Ver- 
mont. He  was  appointed  minister  to  Spain  by  Gen. 
Jackson ;  and  she  accompanied  him,  and  won  a  high 
place  among  the  Spanish  grandees.  She  had  a  brilliant 
career  in  Spain  as  a  favorite  in  social  circles  of  the 
highest  grade  ;  and  in  May,  1831,  in  Paris,  she  was 
married  to  James  J.  Roosevelt  of  New  York;  Gen. 
Lafayette  giving  away  the  bride.  For  many  years 
she  was  a  queen  in  the  leading  society  of  New  York. 
She  has  recently  deceased ;  and  "  The  New  York 
Tribune  "  contained  the  following  tribute  to  her  memo- 
ry:— 


WOMEN    LEADERS   IN   SOCIETY.  125 


To  THE  EDITOB  OF  THE 

Sir,  —  The  remains  of  a  noble  lady,  Mrs.  Cornelia 
Roosevelt,  have  been  taken  to  your  city  for  interment. 
She  will  be  mourned  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean.  She 
was  indeed  a  noble  lady  in  heart,  intellect,  cultivation, 
and  all  the  graces.  For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury, she  dispensed  the  refined  hospitalities  of  her  New 
York  home,  after  presiding  over  her  father's  (Minister 
Van  Ness's)  establishment.  Her  many  graces  were  not 
merely  those  of  the  high-bred  lady.  She  was  a  woman 
of  queenly  dignity,  who  had  sympathy  for  all  suffering. 
She  had  all  the  graces  of  the  daughter,  of  the  mother, 
of  the  wife,  of  the  friend,  of  the  sister  of  mercy.  This 
is  the  tribute  which  all  who  knew  her  will  pay  to  her 
memory.  "W.  A.  H. 

WASITOCGTOX,  April  22,  1876. 

Her  sister  MAKCIA,  married  Sir  William  Gore  Ouse- 
ley,  and  accompanied  him  to  Rio  Janeiro,  to  represent 
England  at  the  coronation  of  the  Emperor  of  Brazil. 
She  was  a  celebrity  in  Washington  and  elsewhere  for 
her  "  personal  loveliness,  charming  manners,  and  ac- 
complishments of  conversation." 

MABY  LEAVENWOKTH,  the  daughter  of  Hon.  Joshua 
Forman,  is  identified,  in  a  measure,  with  the  prosperity 
of  Syracuse,  N.Y.,  which  was  founded  by  her  father. 
Her  maternal  grandfather  was  a  member  of  parliament 
for  Glasgow.  She  was  noted  for  beauty  of  person,  and 
refinement  of  manners,  with  mental  powers  that  aided 
her  in  the  management  of  an  ample  fortune. 

ELIZABETH  BORDMAN  OTIS,  better  known  by  the 
name  of  her  husband,  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  jun.,  was 
the  daughter  of  a  Boston  merchant,  and  grand-daugh- 
ter of  the  first  high  sheriff  of  Suffolk  County  in  Mass- 


126  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUKY. 

acliusetts,  whose  duty  it  was  to  read  the  proclamation 
of  Congress  announcing  a  "  Treaty  of  Peace  between 
Great  Britain  and  America."  She  and  her  husband 
were  said  to  be  "  the  handsomest  bridal  pair  in  Bos- 
ton." Of  her  benevolent  works,  mention  will  be  made 
in  another  place.  She  was  early  left  a  widow  with 
young  sons,  for  the  sake  of  whose  education  she  spent 
seven  years  abroad.  On  her  return  to  Boston,  "  she 
opened  her  house  for  Saturday  morning  receptions,  and 
Thursday  evening  soirees,  conducted  on  the  foreign 
plan  of  tea  and  cakes.  She  did  not  vary  this  simple 
style  of  entertainment,  even  when  strangers  of  dis- 
tinction were  her  guests."  The  record  of  her  life  is 
worthy  of  a  volume  by  itself ;  and,  now  that  she  has 
departed  to  the  higher  life,  it  is  hoped  that  American 
biographical  literature  will  be  enriched  by  it. 

ELIZABETH  CEITTENDEN,  the  daughter  of  Dr.  James 
W.  Moss,  was  born  in  Kentucky,  but  soon  removed  to 
the  West.  She  was  twice  widowed,  and  then,  in  1853, 
married  Hon.  John  J.  Crittenden,  then  attorney-general 
of  the  United  States.  She  was  a  favorite  and  leade-r  in 
fashionable  circles  while  in  Washington,  and  Frankfort, 
Ky.,  and,  after  her  husband's  death,  dispensed  elegant 
hospitality  in  New  York  City. 

Mrs.  MYKA  CLARK  GAINES  has  been  at  different 
times  prominent  in  society  in  Washington.  It  is  under- 
stood that  a  volume,  embodying  the  singular  history  of 
her  efforts  to  obtain  her  father's  estate,  is  to  be  pub- 
lished. She  is  mostly  known  in  connection  with  that 
most  extraordinary  case  in  the  annals  cf  American 
jurisprudence. 

Mrs.  GrLPiN,  formerly  the  widow  of  Hon.  I.  S.  John- 
ston, then  the  widow  of  Hon.  Henry  D.  Gilpin,  has  had 
a  ruling  influence  in  the  society  of  Philadelphia.  She 


WOMEN   LEADERS   IN    SOCIETY.  127 

was  the  daughter  of  a  distinguished  surgeon ;  and  in  a 
home  of  wealth,  after  years  of  travel  and  enjoyment 
abroad,  dispensed  a  regal  hospitality,  especially  to  the 
lovers  of  art  and  literature.  She  has  been  active  in 
benevolent  works.  She  is  mentioned  by  Mrs.  Ellet  as  a 
society-queen  worthy  of  highest  esteem. 

ANN  RIDGE  WAY,  the  daughter  of  a  Philadelphia 
merchant  who  rivalled  Girard,  became  Mrs.  Rush  by 
her  marriage  to  a  son  of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Benjamin 
Rush,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. Wealth  belonging  to  both  husband  and  wife, 
it  was  easy  for  her  to  become  a  leader  in  fashionable 
circles.  She  was  peculiar ;  and  her  social  tastes  were 
not  shared  by  her  husband,  who  often  sat  alone  in  his 
library,  absorbed  in  study,  when  the  rest  of  the  house 
was  a  scene  of  bewildering  gayety.  Mrs.  Ellet  devotes 
several  pages  to  the  history  of  this  woman-leader  in 
society.  She  died  in  1857. 

Mrs.  COVENTRY  WADDELL  was,  before  her  hus- 
band's name  represented  her,  Charlotte  Augusta  South- 
wick.  Born  amid  luxury,  and  always  accustomed  to 
great  wealth,  the  tenor  of  her  life  can  be  easily  imagined. 
Descriptions  of  her  parties,  and  the  elegance  of  her  attire, 
were  common  in  the  papers  ;  and  Mrs.  Ellet  furnishes  a 
portion  of  them  to  her  readers. 

"  EMILIE  SCHAUMBERJ,"  says  Mrs.  Ellet,  "  is  a  Phila- 
delphia celebrity  in  society,  who  has  added  the  fascina- 
tions of  rare  skill  in  vocal  music,  and  still  rarer  powers 
of  dramatic  expression  as  an  amateur  comedienne,  to  the 
attraction  of  great  beauty." 

Madame  OCTAVIA  LE  VERT  "  has  reigned  as  a  belle 
in  both  hemispheres ;  has  received  the  chivalrous  admi- 
ration, alike  in  the  northern  and  southern  sections  of 
the  United  States,  as  well  as  in  the  courtly  circles  of 


128  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTUKY. 

Great  Britain  and  Continental  Europe,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  has  never  been  assailed  by  the  shafts  of  envy  or 
calumny." !  Her  grandfather  was  Gen.  George  Wal- 
ton, one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, and  afterwards  governor  of  Georgia.  Her  father, 
Col.  Walton,  was  a  millionnaire  when  he  married  the 
daughter  of  an  eminent  lawyer  of  Georgia,  —  a  woman 
of  brilliant  accomplishments  and  large  fortune.  As  her 
father  was  governor  of  Florida,  "the  little  Octavia 
became  early  familiar  with  societ}7.  Her  father  took 
great  pains  with  her  education.  Before  she  was  twelve 
years  old,  she  could  write  and  converse  in  three  lan- 
guages ;  and  often  the  colonel  took  her  into  his  office, 
to  translate,  from  the  French  or  Spanish,  letters  con- 
nected with  important  affairs  of  state.  Perched  on  a 
high  stool,  the  little  girl  interpreted  her  foreign 
despatches  with  great  exactness."1 

Miss  Walton  married  Dr.  Henry  Le  Vert  of  Mobile, 
in  1836,  who  died  in  1863,  "having  been  an  invalid  four 
years,  tenderly  nursed  by  the  wife  whom  he  blessed  with 
dying  breath."  Other  relatives  having  also  died,  she 
"  was  left  alone  in  the  world  with  her  two  young  daugh- 
ters." But  she  retained  the  pleasing  mariners,  and  the 
noble  qualities  of  heart  and  mind,  which  rendered  her  a 
favorite  in  earlier  days.  The  change  of  fortune  which 
she  knew  in  later  years  did  not  diminish  her  power  to 
charm  ;  she  was  a  favorite  in  society  till  death,  ever  wel- 
come, respected,  and  beloved. 

Mrs.  ADELICIA  CHEATHAM,  formerly  Mrs.  Acklen, 
was  the  daughter  of  Oliver  B.  Hayes  of  South  Hadley, 
Mass.,  who  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  the  middle  divis- 
ion of  Tennessee,  and  married  a  daughter  of  a  wealthy 
farmer  of  that  State.  He  was  an  eminent  lawyer,  and 

1  Queens  of  American  Society. 


WOMEN   LEADERS    IN   SOCIETY.  l-l) 

afterward  a  clergyman,  and  was  in  possession  of  a  large 
fortune.  His  daughter  was  consequently  surrounded 
by  all  the  advantages  of  wealth  and  culture.  She  was 
married  in  early  youth  to  an  opulent  planter  of  Louisi- 
ana, who  lived  but  a  few  years,  and  bequeathed  his 
immense  fortune  to  his  beloved  wife.  The  young 
widow  was  sought  by  many,  and  finally  married  Col. 
Joseph  Acklen,  an  eminent  lawyer.  He  lived  but  a  few 
years ;  and,  shortly  after  his  death,  Mrs.  Acklen  went 
to  Europe  with  her  two  children,  where  her  accomplish- 
ments and  wealth  gave  her  entrance  to  the  first  society. 
She  returned  to  her  princely  home  in  Nashville,  and  was 
at  once  a  leader  in  social  circles.  She  married  Dr.  W. 
A.  Cheatham  for  her  third  husband,  and  is  said  to  be 
distinguished  for  charities  as  for  social  graces. 

MARTHA  PIERCE  STANNARD  "was  a  celebrated 
leader  in  fashionable  society  in  Richmond,  Va.,  where 
she  lived  thirty  years.  She  was  educated  in  Baltimore, 
and  married  at  a  very  early  age.  Her  house  was  the 
last  burned  when  Richmond  was  in  part  destroyed,  and 
at  the  close  of  the  war  she  went  to  Europe."  She  has 
since  returned,  and  will  make  her  home  in  Fredericks- 
burg,  Va. 

"  Another  distinguished  lady,  prominent  in  all  noble 
works,  as  she  has  been  in  society  by  right  of  intellectual 
gifts  and  charming  manners,  is  Miss  EMILY  MASON  of 
Kentucky,"  says  Mrs.  Ellet.  During  the  war,  her  prop- 
erty was  destroyed ;  and  she  went  to  the  hospitals,  and 
proved  herself  worthy  to  be  called  a  woman-leader  in 
other  circles  than  those  of  so-called  "  society." 

JESSIE  BENTON  FREMONT,  the  widely  known  daugh- 
ter of  Senator  Benton,  has  historic  fame  from  her 
connection  with  her  husband,  Gen.  Fremont,  and  his 
exploring  expeditions.  "  Very  few  women  in  the 


130  WOMEN  OP  THE  CENTUBY. 

United  States  have  equalled  Mrs.  Fremont  in  brillian- 
cy of  conversation.  Almost  at  all  times,  her  talk  is 
sparkling,  flashing,  it  may  be  said,  with  lively  wit  and 
picturesque  illustration,  —  ornament  as  unstudied,  with 
al,  as  the  play  of  a  sunlit  fountain.  Her  witticisms  are 
continually  repeated  in  society.  It  is  the  great  charm 
of  her  humor  and  repartee,  that  they  are  perfectly  spon- 
taneous. .  .  .  Her  appearance  and  manner  are  those 
usually  thought  distinctive  of  an  Englishwoman,  and 
strildngly  like  those  of  her  father.  Her  form  is  rather 
above  the  ordinary  height,  splendidly  proportioned ; 
and  her  face  is  very  handsome,  and  full  of  intellectual 
expression  ;  always  lighted  up  with  the  glow  of  a  bright 
spirit  and  the  benevolence  of  a  generous  heart." J 

But  the  limits  of  this  chapter  forbid  further  mention 
of  the  women  who  have  been,  or  are,  leaders  in  the  social 
circles  of  our  land.  Mrs.  Ellet's  book  will  afford  further 
knowledge  of  those  to  whom  reference  is  herein  made, 
and  the  mention  of  others  not  unknown  to  social  fame 
among  the  women  of  the  past  and  present  century. 

1  Queens  of  American  Society. 


TH E  G R  EATEST  OF  THESE 
IS  CHftRITY 


CHAPTER  V. 


PHILANTHKOPIC    WOMEN. 


Susan  Huntington  —Margaret  Prior  — Mary  Ledyard  —  Kate  Moore 

—  Ida  Lewis  —Father  Taylor's  Widowed  Friend  —  Sarali  Hoffman 

—  Isabella  Graham  —  Sophia  C.  Hoffman  —  Lydia  Maria  Child  — 
Maria  Chapman  and  other  Anti-Slavery  Women  —  Charity  Hod- 
man—Dorothea L.  Dix  —  Clara  Barton,  &c. 


'  Kindness  in  women,  not  their  beauteous  looks, 
Shall  win  my  love." 


SIIAKSPEARE. 


'«  Be  not  weary  in  well-doing;  for  in  due  season  ye  shall  reap  if  ye  faint  not."  — 

THE  kindness  of  woman  is  proverbial.  Philanthropy 
has  always  been  championed  by  feminine  men  (not 
effeminate),  or  manifested  by  tender  women.  Mungo 
Park,  fainting  in  the  wilds  of  Africa,  found  woman  a 
solace  and  a  blessing ;  and  all  the  ages  have  shown  that 
it  is  as  natural  to  woman  to  engage  in  philanthropic 
labors,  as  it  is  for  man  to  be  warlike  and  fond  of  the 
chase.  So  Mary  M.  Chase  could  write  truthfully,  — 

131 


^2  WOMEN   OF   THE   CENTUfiY. 

"  What  if  to  pestilential  cell  whose  very  air  is  death, 
Man  comes,  on  mercy's  errand  bent,  with  half-suspended  breath? 
There  hath  her  footstep  passed  ere  his,  her  gentle  voice  been  heard. 
The  dark  air  of  the  prison-house  her  snow-white  garments  stirred." 

And  every  reader  of  the  records  which  blaze  with  the 
glory  of  "  good-will  to  men  "  will  remember  with  loving 
reverence  the  names  of  Elizabeth  Fry  and  Florence 
Nightingale,  —  the  name  of  the  one  forever  wedded  to 
the  thought  of  Newgate  and  its  prisoners,  who  hung 
with  joy  upon  her  lips  as  she  read  from  the  word  of 
God  to  them,  or  lifted  her  voice  in  solemn  prayer ;  the 
name  of  the  other  blended  with  the  recollections  of  the 
Crimea,  and  the  thought  of  the  soldiers  in  those  hospi- 
tals who  gladly  kissed  the  shadow  of  their  good  angel, 
whose  philanthropy  was  the  guaranty  of  their  comfort 
in  the  hour  of  need. 

It  has  been  the  same  with  American  women :  only 
their  names  have  seldom  been  emblazoned  on  the  scroll 
of  ,fame,  and  perhaps  will  never  reach  the  celebrity  of 
those  whom  England  and  all  civilized  countries  "  delight 
to  honor."  Yet  our  first  century  has  shown  the  United 
States  to  be  honored  in  the  possession  of  such  women 
as  are  worthy  to  be  named  with  Mrs.  Fry  in  respect  to 
deeds  of  philanthropy  and  benevolence. 

The  author  of  "  Noble  Deeds  of  American  Women  " 
mentions  Susan  Huntington  as  a  woman  with  the  very 
spirit  of  her  who  made  such  angelic  visits  to  London 
prisoners.  She  was  born  Jan.  27,  1791 ;  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  one  minister,  and  wife  of  another;  the  latter 
being  pastor  of  the  historic  Old  South  Church  of  Bos- 
ton, Mass.  Her  memoir  was  written  by  her  husband's 
successor  in  the  pastorate,  and  passed  through  five 
editions  in  Scotland.  After  she  was  a  widow  she  was 
robbed  of  jewelry  by  a  young  woman ;  and  at  the  trial 


PHILANTHROPIC    WOMEN.  133 

of  the  thief  she  refused  to  appraise  her  jewels,  knowing 
that  the  degree  of  punishment  depended  on  the  value 
of  the  property  stolen.  Another  was  called  upon  to 
appraise  them;  and  "she  told  him  to  bear  in  mind 
that  they  had  been  used  for  many  years,  were  conse- 
quently damaged,  and  out  of  fashion.  In  this  way  she 
secured  a  low  and  to  herself  a  satisfactory  valuation. 
She  then  addressed  the  judge,  stating  that  she  hail 
herself  taken  the  jewelry  from  a  trunk,  had  carelessly 
left  it  exposed  on  a  table,  had  thus  thrown  temptation 
in  the  way  of  the  girl;  and  suggested  that  her  own 
heedlessness  might  possibly  have  been  the  cause  of 
the  offence.  She  did  not,  she  assured  the  judge,  wish 
to  interfere  with  his  duties,  or  wrongly  bias  his  decis- 
ions ;  but  she  would  nevertheless  esteem  it  a  favor, 
if  the  punishment  inflicted  on  the  unfortunate  trans- 
gressor could  be  the  lightest  that  would  not  dishonor 
the  law.  Hoping  the  ignorant  girl  would  repent  and 
reform,  she  left  the  stand  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  which 
greatly  affected  the  judge.  In  his  sentence  he  reminded 
the  culprit,  that  the  person  whom  she  had  most 
offended  was  the  first  to  plead  for  a  mitigation  of  her 
punishment,  and  had  saved  her  from  the  extreme  rigors 
of  a  broken  law."  This  was  not  an  act  of  philanthropy 
which  would  entitle  her  to  a  niche  in  the  temple  of 
fame,  perhaps,  in  the  view  of  some  ;  but  surely  it  was 
an  act  in  the  same  kindly  spirit  in  which  all  philan- 
thropic acts  are  performed;  and  out  of  such  a  spirit 
have  grown  our  prison-reform  societies  and  many  other 
benevolent  enterprises. 

MARGARET  PRIOR  had  this  same  spirit.  She  was  born 
in  Fredericksburg,  Va.,  in  1773.  Her  maiden  name 
was  Barrett ;  and  she  married  first  William  Allen, 
a  merchant  of  Baltimore,  and  then  William  Prior, 


134  WOMEN  OF  THE  CE:NTU&£. 

a  public-spirited  and  benevolent  Quaker.  She  was 
at  that  time  a  Baptist,  but  in  1819  united  with  the 
Methodists.  When  the  New  York  Orphan  As}*lum 
was  instituted,  she  was  one  of  the  managers,  and  ever 
after  engaged  in  similar  good  works.  Of  her  self-deny- 
ing habits  and  self-sacrificing  labors,  one  can  learn  by 
reading  a  book  entitled  "  Walks  of  Usefulness ;  or, 
Reminiscences  of  Margaret  Prior."  In  soup-houses, 
and  as  a  city  missionary  among  the  poor,  her  labors 
were  arduous ;  and  she  adopted  several  children.  She  is 
numbered  among  those  active  Christians,  of  conserva- 
tive theological  opinions,  and  large  heart,  who  are 
industrious  in  "  organizing  week-day  and  sabbath 
schools,  industrial  associations,  and  temperance  societies, 
establishing  soup-houses  and  orphan-asylums,  visiting 
the  sick,  the  poor,  the  idle,  the  culprit,  the  outcast; 
pointing  the  dying  to  a  risen  Saviour,  leading  the  desti- 
tute by  the  hand  to  a  place  of  relief,  the  idle  to  houses 
of  industry,  and  warning  the  outlaw  and  the  corrupt 
of  the  certain  and  terrible  doom  that  would  attend 
persistency  in  their  downward  course.  With  the  sweet- 
ness, gentleness,  simplicity,  and  delicacy,  so  becoming 
in  woman  under  all  circumstances,  were  blended  in  her 
character,  energy  that  was  unconquerable,  courage 
that  danger  could  not  blench,  and  firmness  that  human 
power  could  not  bend.  The  contemplation  of  such  a 
character  is  superficial,  if  it  does  not  prompt  benevolent 
feelings,  re-affirm  virtuous  resolutions,  and  revive  and 
strengthen  drooping  piety." 

If  service  to  the  soldiers  of  liberty  was  ever  philan- 
thropic, as  it  always  is,  it  was  surely  so  in  the  day  when 
Fort  Griswold  was  attacked  by  the  British,  and  the 
city  of  New  London,  Conn.,  burned.  Historians  record 
the  cruelty  of  the  British  soldiers  as  almost  incredible, 


PHILANTHROPIC    \VOMEN.  135 

their  barbarity  to  the  wounded  American  soldiers  being 
monstrous.  "  One  of  the  ministering  angels  who  came 
the  next  morning  to  the  aid  of  the  thirty-five  wounded 
men  who  lay  all  night  freezing  in  their  own  blood,  was 
Miss  MARY  LEDYARD,  a  near  relation  of  the  colonel. 
'  She  brought  warm  chocolate,  wines,  and  other  refresh- 
ments ;  and  while  Dr.  Downer  of  Preston  was  dressing 
their  wounds,  she  went  from  one  to  another  administering 
her  cordials,  and  breathing  into  their  ears  gentle  words 
of  sympathy  and  encouragement.  In  these  labors  of 
kindness  she  was  assisted  by  another  relative  of  the 
lamented  Col.  Ledyard,  —  Mrs.  JOHN  LEDYARD,  who 
had  also  brought  her  household  stores  to  refresh  the 
sufferers,  and  lavished  on  them  the  most  soothing 
personal  attentions.  The  soldiers  who  recovered  from 
their  wounds  were  accustomed,  to  the  day  of  their 
death,  to  speak  of  these  ladies  in  terms  of  fervent  grati- 
tude and  praise.' " 

England  is  proud  of  her  Grace  Darling,  and  her  name 
and  prowess  in  rescuing  the  drowning  is  familiar  'to  all 
who  cherish  deeds  of  heroic  philanthropy ;  but  England 
is  rivalled  by  America  when  Kate  Moore  and  Ida  Lewis 
are  mentioned.  KATE  MOORE  was  the  daughter  of  a 
light-house  keeper,  and  her  home  was  Fairweather 
Island,  on  the'  coast  of  Connecticut.  In  1851  Mi. 
Clement  wrote  of  her,  "She  has  so  thoroughly  cultivated 
the  sense  of  hearing,  that  she  can  distinguish  amid  the 
howling  fctorin  the  shrieks  of  the  drowning  mariners, 
and  thus  direct  a  boat,  which  she  has  learned  to 
manage  most  dexterously,  in  the  darkest  night,  to  the 
spot  where  a  fellow-mortal  is  perishing.  Though  well 
educated  and  refined,  she  possesses  none  of  the  affected 
delicacy  which  characterizes  too  many  town-bred  misses  : 
but,  adapting  herself  to  the  peculiar  exigencies  of  hey 


WOMEN  OF  THE 

father's  humble  yet  honorable  calling,  she  is  ever  ready 
to  lend  a  helping  hand,  and  shrinks  from  no  danger,  it' 
duty  points  that  way.  In  the  gloom  and  terror  of  the 
stormy  night,  amid  perils  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and 
all  seasons  of  the  year,  she  has  launched  her  bark  on 
the  threatening  waves,  and  has  assisted  her  aged  and 
feeble  father  in  saving  the  lives  of  twenty-one  persons 
during  the  last  fifteen  years." 

IDA  LEWIS,  who  has  been  termed  "  the  Grace  Dar- 
ling of  America,"  is  a  Newport  heroine.  Col.  Brewer- 
ton,  the  artist,  has  made  an  interesting  word-picture  of 
this  noble  young  woman  and  her  deeds  of  heroism. 
She  is  the  daughter  of  Capt.  Hosea  Lewis  of  Hingham, 
Mass.,  and  was  named  after  her  mother,  Idawalley  Zo- 
rada  Willey,  who  was  a  daughter  of  a  Block  Island 
physician,  Dr.  Aaron  C.  Willey.  Ida  was  born  on  Feb. 
25,  1842,  and  was  fifteen  when  her  parents  moved  to 
Lime  Rock  Lighthouse.  Until  that  time  she  had  at- 
tended the  public  schools  of  Newport.  Her  father 
becoming  paralytic,  she  was  obliged  to  use  the  oars,  and 
bring  all  the  supplies  to  the  lighthouse,  and  row  her 
brothers  and  sister  to  and  from  school.  Hence  she 
became  an  expert  rower,  and  was  as  fearless  on  the 
ocean  as  others  .on  the  land.  In  the  fall  of  1858  she 
first  gratified  her  philanthropic  nature,  'and  won  a  place 
among  the  brave,  by  rescuing  four  young  men  from 
drowning,  when  their  pleasure-boat  had  been  upset 
through  recklessness.  She  was  then  but  sixteen.  Eight 
years  after,  when  Ida  had  barely  reached  the  age  of 
Grace  Darling,  she  rescued  a  drowning  soldier  from  the 
neighboring  fort.  In  1867  she  rescued  three  Irishmen 
who  were  out  in  a  boat  after  a  sheep  which  was  drifting 
out  to  sea.  Their  skill  and  courage  failed  them,  and 
amid  the  white-capped  billows  they  were  powerless  to 


PHILANTHROPIC   WOMEN.  139 

reach  the  shore ;  and  having  taken  the  men  off  their 
sinking  boat,  and  safely  landed  them,  she  returned,  and 
rescued  also  the  sheep. 

Two  weeks  after,  she  rescued  a  man  whose  boat, 
stove  by  a  rock,  had  sunk,  and  left  him  up  to  his  neck 
in  water,  while  the  rising  tide  was  threatening  to 
ingulf  him.  "  On  the  twenty-ninth  day  of  March, 
1869,  at  about  five  o'clock,  P.M.,  Ida  was  sitting  in  her 
favorite  seat  beside  the  fire,  finishing  some  work  before 
the  preparation  of  the  family's  evening  meal."  Her 
mother  discovered  suddenly  a  boat  capsized,  to  which 
were  clinging  two  men,  soldiers  from  the  garrison  at 
Fort  Adams.  The  lad  who  was  the  manager  of  their 
sail-boat  was  already  drowned,  and  they  were  in  fright- 
ful peril.  The  mother  rushed  toward  her  daughter, 
and  shrieked  out  the  awful  fact. 

"The  daughter  only  catches  the  words,  'drowning 
men,'  and  is  already  upon  her  feet,  prompt  and  eager 
for  action.  In  spite  of  her  father's  expostulations  (for 
the  old  sailor  knows  the  danger,  and  fears  the  risk),  she 
springs  to  the  door.  All  thought  of  the  warmth  and 
safety  within  have  vanished  now.  The  patient,  toiling 
girl,  immersed  in  vulgar  cares  of  mending,  or  preparing 
the  evening  meal,  becomes  the  heroine,  flying  with 
dauntless  soul  to  the  rescue  of  the  perishing.  She  has 
no  shoes  upon  her  feet,  no  hat  upon  her  head,  no  outer 
garment  to  protect  her  slight  figure  from  the  storm.  A 
towel  is  hastily  seized,  and  knotted  loosely  about  her- 
neck ;  and  her  stocking-clad  feet  are  bruised  by  the 
sharp  rocks  and  stones,  as  she  speeds  her  way  to  the 
ever-ready  boat.  A  younger  brother,  at  her  request, 
goes  with  our  heroine,  to  assist  in  dragging  in  the 
drowning  men.  But  to  Ida's  practised  hand,  and  to 
Tola's  willing  arms,  must  be  trusted  the  plying  of  those 


140  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

oars,  upon  whose  dexterous  use  depends,  under  Provi- 
dence, the  saving  of  the  lives  now  so  sorely  threatened. 
Never  before  were  those  hands  so  tried,  the  strength  of 
her  woman's  arm  so  tested,  as  they  must  be  by  the 
struggle  of  to-day.  Pull  bravely,  girl,  though  the  green 
billows,  crested  with  foam,  come  flying  over  the  open 
boat,  drenching  its  occupants  to  the  skin,  and  every 
instant  threatening  their  destruction.  Pull  bravely,  nor 
heed  the  dash  of  the  billows,  the  blinding  rain,  or  the 
muttering  storm.  For  fame,  success,  and  a  nation's 
encomiums  wait  upon  your  exertions ;  or,  it  may  be  (but 
she  never  paused  to  think  of  that),  a  watery  grave 
beside  those  whom  you  are  endeavoring  to  save.  Mean- 
while, the  mother  has  rushed  out  into  the  storm,  and, 
regardless  of  the  weather,  takes  her  stand  upon  the 
rock,  wildly  gesticulating,  and  answering  the  cries  of 
the  drowning  men,  in  the  hope  that  they  may  be  en- 
couraged to  continue  their  efforts  for  life  by  the  pros- 
pect of  succor.  It  is  all  she  can  do,  and  she  does 
it  well.  .  .  .  The  race  for  life  is  accomplished,  the 
drifting  wreck  overtaken,  and  its  exhausted  crew  add 
new  laurels  to  Ida's  wreath  of  well-earned  fame.  Once 
more  in  a  place  of  safety,  they  speedily  regain  the 
Light,  where  Sergt.  Adams  is  barely  able  to  totter  up 
to  the  house,  while  his  companion  is  so  far  gone  that 
their  united  strength  is  required  to  remove  him  from 
the  boat.  So  ends  the  story  of  our  heroine's  exploits, 
—  deeds  worthy  of  emulation,  which,  in  the  grand  old 
days  of  classic  Greece  and  Rome,  would  have  gained 
the  applause  of  senates,  and  been  perpetuated  through 
the  sculptor's  marble,  and  upon  the  historian's  tablet 
of  brass,  to  ages  yet  unborn." 

A  silver  medal  and  a  check  for  one  hundred  dollars 
were   awarded   Ida   from   the   Life-Saving    Benevolent 


PHILANTHROPIC   WOMEN.  141 

Association  of  New  York.  In  the  General  Assembly 
of  her  native  State,  Rhode  Island,  resolutions  in  ac- 
knowledgment of  her  valuable  services  were  passed, 
and  communicated  to  her  in  due  form  by  a  document 
irom  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  with  the  State  seal 
affixed.  The  officers  and  soldiers  of  Fort  Adams  sent 
their  thanks,  and  a  purse  of  two  hundred  and  eighteen 
dollars ;  and  letters  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  with 
various  gifts,  were  forwarded  to  her,  indicative  of  her 
fame  as  a  heroine.  Since  she  thus  became  famous, 
thousands  have  visited  the  Lime  Rock  Lighthouse  to 
see  her ;  among  them  the  vice-president  of  the  nation, 
Mr.  Colfax.  And  when  the  president  (Gen.  Grant) 
visited  Newport,  he  solicited  an  interview  with  her, 
with  the  same  spirit  of  regard  for  her  heroism.  Her 
fellow-townsmen  honored  themselves  in  presenting  to 
her  a  boat,  on  the  4th  of  Juty,  1869 ;  the  public  presen- 
tation taking  place  on  the  parade-ground  in  front  of 
the  State  House.  The  rudder  was  of  walnut  with 
silver  plate  inscribed,  and  was  from  the  Narragansett 
Boat  Club  of  Providence.  The  officers  of  the  steamer 
"  Newport "  presented  two  beautiful  flags.  The  speech 
in  presenting  the  boat  was  made  by  the  Hon.  Francis 
Brinley;  and  the  response  in  behalf  of  Miss  Lewis  was 
by  Col.  T.  W.  Higginson.  Few  women  may  ever  be- 
come famous  as  she  has  for  handling  the  oar  so  bravely 
and  with  such  results ;  but  all  true  women  will  delight 
to  honor  one  who  so  nobly  reflects  honor  on  her  sex 
and  on  humanity. 

There  are  many  philanthropic  women  who  in  Chris- 
tian faith  and  love  have  done  noble  deeds  of  which  the 
world  has  only  learned  through  the  results  of  their 
labors  upon  others  who  have  become  famous,  while  their 
own  names  are  lost  to  human  knowledge.  Such  an  one 


142  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTtLRY. 

was  the  widowed  friend  of  him  who  was  afterwards 
known  as  "Father  Taylor,"  —  the  Rev.  Edward  T, 
Taylor,  the  successful  preacher  to  seamen  in  Boston. 
She  was  one  who  found  her  happiness  as  many  women 
do,  in 

"  Humble  toil  and  heavenward  duty;  " 

and,  as  she  resided  in  an  ignorant  and  vicious  neiglbor- 
hood,  she  used  to  open  her  little  front  room  for  pra}~er- 
meetings,  and  scattered  seed  on  the  arid  soil.  Father 
Taylor,  then  a  gay  sailor,  attended,  and  became  in- 
terested in  religious  truth.  He  was  summoned  to%  sea, 
and  was  made  a  prisoner  in  Halifax.  The  widow  visited 
her  relatives  there,  and,  in  a  philanthropic  spirit, 
visited  the  prison.  "  In  one  apartment  were  the  Ameri- 
can prisoners.  As  she  approached  the  grated  door,  a 
voice  shouted  her  name,  calling  her  mother ;  and  a  youth 
appeared,  and  leaped  for  joy  at  the  grate.  It  was  the 
lost  sailor-boy  !  They  wept  and  conversed  like  mother 
and  son ;  and,  when  she  left,  she  gave  him  a  Bible,  — 
his  future  guide  and  comfort.  During  her  stay  in  Hali- 
fax, she  constantly  visited  the  prison,  supplying  the 
youth  with  tracts,  religious  books,  and  clothing."  Long 
years  afterwards,  an  aged  English  local  preacher  met 
Father  Taylor  in  Boston ;  and,  as  they  conversed,  it  was 
found  that  his  wife  was  the  same  philanthropic  widow. 
Father  Taylor  hastened  away,  and  in  -a  short  time 
reached  the  residence  of  this  local  preacher,  with  all 
his  family,  and  introduced  himself  as  the  sailor-boy  of 
the  prayer-meeting  and  the  prison.  One  can  easily 
imagine  the  scene  that  followed.  Her  labors,  she  then 
found,  had  not  been  in  vain  in  the  Lord. 

ISABELLA  GRAHAM  came  to  this  country  from  Scot- 
land, and  in  1789  settled  in  New  York.     She  wa*  notrd. 


PHILANTHROPIC   WOMEN.  143 

during  the  latter  part  of  her  life,  for  her  Christian 
benevolence  ;  and  though  not  properly  a  subject  for 
notice  in  this  volume,  which  aims  to  mention  those 
born  in  our  States  mainly,  she  commenced  so  many 
benevolent  enterprises,  and  her  influence  is  so  widely 
felt,  and  name  so  well  known,  among  the  philanthropic 
women  of  America,  that  one  is  justified  in  regarding 
her  as  one  of  the  notable  women  of  the  century.  She 
made  it  a  rule  to  give  a  tenth  part  of  her  earnings  to 
religious  and  charitable  purposes,  a  rule  which  it  would 
be  well  for  all  Christian  women  to  adopt.  In  1795  she 
received,  at  one  time,  an  advance  of  one  thousand 
dollars  on  the  sale  of  a  lease  which  she  held  on  some 
building-lots  ;  and,  not  being  used  to  such  large  profits, 
she  said,  on  receiving  the  money,  "  Quick,  quick,  let 
me  appropriate  the  tenth,  before  my  heart  grows  hard." 
She  assisted  to  establish  a  society  for  the  relief  of  poor 
widows,  and  was  first  directress.  Her  biography,  by 
Mrs.  Bethune,  gives  accounts  of  numerous  similar 
charities  which  she  organized  or  promoted.  She  started 
day  schools,  and  established  sabbath  schools,  visited  the 
alms-house,  and  attended  to  the  instruction  of  the 
children  there.  On  March  15,  1806,  a  society  for 
establishing  an  orphan-asylum  was  formed,  and  she  was 
the  presiding  officer.  "  In  the  winter  of  1807-8,  when 
the  suspension  of  commerce  by  the  embargo  rendered 
the  situation  of  the  poor  more  destitute  than  ever, 
she  purchased  flax,  and  lent  wheels ; "  and  the  indus- 
trious poor  spun  and  wove  the  flax,  which  was  after- 
ward made  into  tablecloths  and  towels  for  the  family 

US8. 

Mrs.  Graham  was  president  of  the  board  of  ladies 
who  superintended  the  Magdalen  Asylum,  and  assisted 
in  forming  a  society  for  promoting  industry  among  the 


144  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

poor.  She  died  July  27,  1814.  Of  her  it  was  said,  as 
of  Dorcas,  "  This  woman  was  full  of  good  works  and 
alms-deeds  which  she  did." 

SARAH  HOFFMAN  was  one  of  her  valued  coadjutors. 
She  was  daughter  of  Judge  David  Ogden  of  New  York ; 
born  at  Newark,  Sept.  8,  1742,  married  Nicholas  Hoff- 
man in  1762.  If,  as  Granger  declares,  — 

"  The  height  of  virtue  is  to  serve  mankind,"  — 

she  reached  that  height.  "Mrs.  Hoffman,  with  Mrs. 
Graham  and  their  associates,  often  perambulated  the 
districts  of  poverty  and  disease  from  morning  till  night, 
entering  the  huts  of  want  and  desolation,  and  carrying 
comfort  and  consolation  to  many  a  despairing  heart. 
They  clambered  to  the  highest  and  meanest  garrets,  and 
descended  to  the  lowest,  darkest,  and  dankest  cellars, 
to  administer  to  the  wants  of  the  destitute,  the  sick,  and 
the  dying.  They  took  with  them  medicine,  as  well  as 
food;  and  were  accustomed  to  administer  Christian 
counsel  or  consolation,  as  the  case  required,  to  the  infirm 
in  body  and  the  wretched  in  heart.  They  even  taught 
many  poor  creatures,  who  seemed  to  doubt  the  existence 
of  an  overruling  Providence,  to  pray  to  Him  whose  laws 
they  had  broken,  and  thereby  rendered  themselves 
miserable." 

The  founder  of  the  benevolent  institution  known  as 
the  Chapin  Home,  in  New  York  City,  was  a  woman,  — 
SOPHIA  C.  HOFFMAN,  —  a  native  of  Sheffield,  Berkshire 
County,  Mass.  In  her  early  life  an  invalid  aunt,  by  her 
own  suffering  with  a  sense  of  dependence,  impressed 
upon  Mrs.  Hoffman's  mind  the  importance  of  a  home 
where  aged  women  who  had  been  accustomed  to  the 
comforts  of  a  competence  in  earlier  days  could  feel  hide- 


PHILANTHROPIC    WOMEN.  145 

pendent,  at  the  same  time  that  they  were  made  com- 
fortable; and  she  promised  this  relative,  that,  if  ever  the 
means  were  in  her  possession,  she  would  seek  to  establish 
such  a  retreat.  The  Chapin  Home  was  the  outgrowth 
of  this  experience,  and,  from  its  inception  to  its  comple- 
tion, was  the  subject  of  earnest  prayer.  Faith  and  love 
were  the  pillars  upon  which  this  arch  of  benevolence 
rested.  As  the  years  rolled  on,  and  Mrs.  Hoffman 
found  herself  the  wife  of  a  successful  merchant  of  New 
York,  and  dwelling  in  one  of  the  palatial  homes  on 
Fifth  Avenue,  this  dream  of  her  childhood  became  a 
reality ;  and,  with  the  hearty  co-operation  of  her  hus- 
band, George  Hoffman,  she  consecrated  the  first  con- 
tribution to  the  new  enterprise,  and  then  toiled  to 
obtain  co-laborers,  that  the  home  might  be  reared  and 
occupied.  It  was  to  be  wholly  unsectarian,  and  was  so 
incorporated,  though  it  was  to  bear  the  name  of  a 
widely  known  Universalist  preacher,  who  had  been  for 
many  years  Mrs.  Hoffman's  own  honored  and  beloved 
pastor,  and  whose  teachings  had  greatly  strengthened 
her  in  benevolent  purpose,  so  that  she  often  declares 
this  Home  to  be  a  blossoming  of  the  truths  so  elo- 
quently proclaimed  by  him  ;  an  evidence  of  the  truth 
expressed  by  Whittier  in  the  words,  — 

"  God  is  loved  through  love  of  man." 

The  first  annual  report  of  this  charity  mentions  that 
the  first  meeting  of  friends  interested  in  the  enterprise 
was  held  on  Feb.  1,  1869,  in  the  basement  of  Dr. 
Chapin's  church,  New  York  ;  but  prior  to  this  several 
private  meetings  had  been  held  in  Mrs.  Hoffman's 
parlors  ;  and  the  corner-stone  of  the  handsome  brick 
edifice  was  laid  by  Mrs.  Hoffman's  own  hands.  This  is 


146  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

not  the  only  charitable  cause  to  which  this  woman  of 
philanthropy  has  given  aid.  She  is  to  be  numbered 
also  among  the  reformers,  as  one  of  the  first  treasurers 
of  the  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Woman, 
and  a  vice-president  of  the  Woman's  Centenary  Associ- 
ation among  the  Universalists.  But  the  Chapin  Home 
was  especially  her  work,  since  from  early  youth  she 
had  planned  such  a  charity,  and  while  in  Europe 
visited  many  such  homes  in  Great  Britain  and  on  the 
Continent,  that  she  might  study  their  methods,  and 
develop  a  plan  for  a  self-sustaining  and  permanent 
institution.  "  And  thus,"  as  a  friend  writes,  "  when 
fair  fortune  so  smiled  on  her  that  she  could  command 
money  enough  to  start  the  enterprise,  she  did  so 
not  with  the  hand  of  a  novice,  but  with  a  hand  strong 
to  fulfil  the  pledge  made  to  her  soul  in  its  spring- 
time." 

CHARITY  RODMAN  proved  herself  worthy  of  her 
name.  She  was  born  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  in  1765, 
and  married  Thomas  Rotch  of  Nantucket,  June  6, 
1790.  He  died  in  1823,  and  left  a  large  amount 
of  propert}7"  at  her  disposal.  She  established  a  school 
fund  for  orphan  and  destitute  children,  which  four 
or  five  years  after  her  death,  "which  occurred  on 
Aug.  6,  1824,  amounted  to  twenty  thousand  dollars. 
The  interest  of  this  sum  has  since  purchased  a  farm  of 
a  hundred  and  eighty-five  acres,  one  and  one-half  miles 
fiom  the  village  of  Massillon,  O.,  and  erected,  at  a 
cost  of  five  thousand  dollars,  a  large  brick  edifice  for 
educational  and  dwelling  purposes,  which  has  been 
open  seven  years,  and  which  sustains  forty  pupils.  The 
real  and  personal  estate  of  the  institution  is  now  esti- 
mated at  thirty-five  thousand  dollars.  A  class  of  ten 
pupils  enters  annually,  and  remains  four  years.  The 


PHILANTHROPIC   WOMEN.  147 

school  is  established  on  the  manual  labor  plan  ;  and  the 
boys  are  thoroughly  instructed  in  the  art  of  husbandry, 
and  the  girls  in  culinary  duties,  and  the  manufacture 
of  their  own  wearing  apparel.  Children  enter  between 
the  ages  of  ten  and  fourteen  ;  hence  the  youngest  leave 
as  advanced  in  life  as  their  fifteenth  year,  a  period 
when  their  habits  of  industry  and  their  moral  princi- 
ples usually  become  too  well  established  to  be  easily 
changed. 

"  This  school,  founded  by  the  benevolence  of  a  single 
individual,  a  devout  yet  modest  and  quiet  member  of 
the  society  of  Friends,  is  destined  to  become  a  source 
of  inestimable  blessings.  Every  half  a  century,  five 
hundred  otherwise  neglected  plants  in  the  garden  of 
humanity  will  there  be  pruned  and  nurtured  and 
strengthened  for  the  storms  of  life.  And  this  offering 
of  Christian  philanthropy  —  the  school  —  will  stand  as  a 
memorial  of  woman's  worth.  The  highest  ambition  of 
its  founder  was,  to  be  a  blessing  to  those  who  should 
come  after  her  ;  and  it  may  be  said,  that,  while  she  did 
not  live  in  vain,  neither  did  she  die  in  vain.  Her 
death  threw  a  legacy  into  the  lap  of  orphanage,  the 
benignant  influence  of  which  will  long  be  felt." 

Among  the  philanthropic  efforts  in  our  country,  may 
surely  be  counted  all  those  made  during  the  days  of 
slavery  in  the  land,  for  the  benefit  of  the  slave,  espe- 
cially for  his  liberation  from  the  cruel  bondage  which  as 
John  Wesley  declared  was  "  the  sum  of  all  villanies." 
The  roll-call  of  the  philanthropic  women  in  the  seranks 
would  be  long  and  brilliant.  The  saintly  and  sainted 
Samuel  J.  May,  in  his  "Recollections  of  the  Anti- 
Slavery  Conflict,"  has  mentioned  many  of  them,  and 
given  anecdotes  of  their  self-sacrifice  and  bravery,  for 
which  there  is  not  space  on  these  pages,  but  which 


148  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

thrill  the  heart  of  the  reader,  and  make  one  glad  to  be 
in  a  world  where  such  women  have  lived  and  labored. 
LYDIA  MARIA  CHILD  was  one  of  those  philanthro- 
pists whose  able  pen  won  others  to  the  advocacy  of 
freedom,  while  provoking  also  the  prejudice  of  the 
South.  She  was  a  Francis,  born  in  Medford,  Mass., 
Feb.  11,  1802,  but  passed  her  early  life  in  Maine.  In 
the  "Eminent  Women  of  the  Age,"  is  an  extended 
biographical  sketch  of  this  noble  woman,  written  by 
Col.  T.  W.  Higginson.  Further  mention  will  be  made 
of  her  in  the  chapter  devoted  to  literary  women.  But 
her  literary  fame,  though  very  great,  is  almost  eclipsed 
by  the  sense  of  her  philanthropic  spirit.  The  exercise 
of  this  noble  spirit  caused  her  books  to  fall  into  sudden 
obscurity.  She  anticipated  this  when  she  wrote  her 
"Appeal"  in  behalf  of  the  poor  slave.  Her  words 
had  the  Spartan  ring  and  the  Christian  martyr  tone  as 
she  said  in  its  preface,  "  I  am  fully  aware  of  the  unpop- 
ularity of  the  task  I  have  undertaken  ;  but,  though  I 
expect  ridicule  and  censure,  I  cannot  fear  them.  A 
few  years  hence,  the  opinion  of  the  world  will  be  a 
matter  in  which  I  have  not  even  the  most  transient 
interest ;  but  this  book  will  be  abroad  on  its  mission  of 
humanity  long  after  the  hand  that  wrote  it  is  mingling 
with  the  dust.  Should  it  be  the  means  of  advancing, 
even  one  single  hour,  the  inevitable  progress  of  truth 
and  justice,  I  would  not  exchange  the  consciousness  for 
all  Rothschild's  wealth,  or  Sir  Walter's  fame."  This 
was  the  first  anti-slavery  work  in  book-form  ever 
printed  in  America ;  and  even  Dr.  Channing  attributed 
a  portion  of  his  anti-slavery  zeal  to  this  book.  In  her 
work  as  a  philanthropist,  as  well  as  a  literary  woman, 
Mrs.  Child  assisted  her  husband,  the  late  David  Lee 
Child,  Esq.,  to  edit  "The  Anti-slavery  Standard,"  and 


PHILANTHKOPIO  WOMEN.  149 

also  prepared  several  other  books  and  pamphlets 
besides  her  powerful  "  Appeal."  Nor  has  /ihe  labored 
with  her  pen  alone  as  a  philanthropist.  The  haunts  of 
misery  have  known  her  presence,  bearing  help  and 
consolation  to  the  weary  and  heavy  laden.  Lowell,  in 
his  "Fable  for  Critics,"  renders  poetic  tribute  to  her 
worth,  in  which  occur  these  truthful  words :  — 

"  Ah,  there's  many  a  beam  from  the  fountain  of  day, 
That,  to  reach  us  unclouded,  must  pass  on  its  way 
Through  the  soul  of  a  woman  ;  and  hers  is  wide  opo 
To  the  influence  of  heaven  as  the  blue  eyes  of  hope  ; 
Yes,  a  great  soul  is  hers,  —  one  that  dares  to  go  in 
To  the  prison,  the  slave-hut,  the  alleys  of  sin, 
And  to  bring  into  each ,  or  to  find  there,  some  line 
Of  the  never  completely  out-trampled  divine  ; 

What  a  wealth  it  would  bring  to  the  narrow  and  sour, 
Could  they  be  as  a  Child  but  for  one  little  hour  ! " 

For  almost  or  quite  a  quarter  of  a  century,  Mrs. 
Child  has  dwelt  at  Wayland,  Mass.,  in  the  cottage 
bequeathed  to  her  by  her  father,  enjoying  a  realization 
of  Thomson's  description  of  a  happy  life,  — 

"  Retirement,  rural  quiet,  friendship,  books, 
Ease,  and  alternate  labor,  useful  life, 
Progressive  virtue,  and  approving  heaven." 

Her  cheek  still  glows  with  the  rose  of  youth,  though 
her  hair  has  begun  to  be  silvery  with  age,  but  the  heart 
of  love  looks  through  the  sweet  blue  eyes  ;  and  one  is 
constrained  to  say  there  are  few  women  so  handsome 
in  their  declining  years,  and  justify  the  admiring  look 
of  her  husband  as  he  called  her,  in  my  hearing,  "  an 
angel  of  mercy,"  while  he  spoke  of  her  continued 
interest  in  philanthropic  enterprises.  No  wonder  Col. 


150  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTTJEY. 

Higginson  closed  his  sketch  with  the  words,  "  No  rural 
retirement  can  hide  her  from  the  prayers  of  those  whe 
were  ready  to  perish  when  they  first  knew  her;  and 
the  love  of  those  whose  lives  she  has  enriched  from 
childhood  will  follow  her  fading  eyes  as  they  look 
toward  sunset,  and,  after  her  departing,  will  keep  hei 
memory  green." 

There  is  another  woman  of  the  first  century,  still 
lingering  on  the  shores  of  time  to  bless  those  who  are 
around  her,  as  she  has  blessed  the  world  for  eighty 
years, —  LTJCKETIA  MOTT,  the  philanthropic  woman,  as 
well  as  the  Quaker  preacher.  She  is  "  a  native  of  the 
island  of  Nantucket,  of  the  Coffins  and  Macys  on  the 
father's  side,  and  of  the  Folgers  on  the  mother's ; 
through  them  related  to  Dr.  Franklin.'  Born  in  1793 ; " 
brought  up  to  be  useful  in  the  family;  in  1804,  re- 
moved to  Boston,  and  studied  in  the  public  and  private 
schools  there.  Afterwards  studied  in  the  Friends' 
Boarding  School  in  Dutchess  County,  N.Y.,  and  then 
became  a  teacher  there,  though  but  fifteen  years  of  age. 
At  the  early  age  of  eighteen  she  married  James  Mott 
of  New  York,  and  removed  to  Philadelphia,  where  she 
has  since  resided,  dwelling  now  in  a  lovely  suburban 
retreat  which  she  adorns  and  makes  attractive  to  visit 
ors  from  many  lands.  Mrs.  Soule  writes  thus  of  a 
recent  visit :  — 

"  I  go  where  I  have  long  wanted  to  go,  —  to  the  roof- 
tree  that  shelters  the  venerable  Lucretia  Mott.  It  is  a 
lovely  home,  standing  in  a  lawn  of  spotless  beauty. 
Part  of  the  house  is  old  and  of  Quaker  simplicity  ;  and 
part  of  it  modern,  and,  though  corresponding  with  the 
older  part,  yet  tastefully  elegant.  We  count  it  a  great 
privilege  to  have  seen  Friend  Mott  in  her  own  home, 
queen  of  the  household,  as  she  has  long  been  queen  of 


LUCRETIA   MOTT. 


PHILANTHROPIC   WOMEN.  153 

the  platform.  She  received  us  very  kindly,  and  gave  an 
inimitable  description  of  Abel  Thomas,  the  grandfather 
of  Rev.  A.  C.  Thomas,  who  was  a  celebrated  Quaker 
preacher  when  '  Lucretia '  was  a  very  young  girl; 
and  she  showed  a  surprising  familiarity  with  all  the 
topics  of  the  day,  demonstrating  that  assertion  we 
sometimes  make,  that  because  people  grow  old  they 
need  not  necessarily  grow  rusty.  She  is  really  a  won- 
derful woman;  brilliant  in  intellect,  tender  in  heart, 
guileless  in  soul.  Though  past  eight}7,  she  is  one  of 
the  most  industrious  women  of  the  period.  She  spends 
several  hours  every  day  in  reading  and  writing  in  the 
cosey  little  library  which  she  showed  us,  saying,  as  she 
did  so,  *  I  keep  a  wood-fire  on  the  hearth  ;  and  I  build 
it  myself,  by  choice,  every  morning.'  Nor  does  she 
fold  her  hands  when  her  hours  for  study  are  over.  '  She 
showed  us  twenty  yards  of  beautifully  fine  rag-carpet 
which  she  had  made  since  she  was  eighty ;  and  brought 
out  her  tiny  work-basket,  with  the  rags  cut  by  herself, 
an  unfinished  ball  lying  in  the  midst,  and  beside  it  her 
skeins  of  ravellings,  for  she  maintains  that  ravellings 
are  better  to  sew  carpet-rags  with  than  thread  I  '  But 
don't  they  break  too  easily  ? '  —  'On  the  contrary,  I  find 
them  too  strong  sometimes.'  I  looked  at  her  dainty 
fingers;  and  it  seemed  to  me  a  spider's  thread  would  be 
strong  enough  for  them  to  sew  with.  Yet  the  carpet, 
when  done,  is  substantial  and  likewise  really  beautiful, 
the  rags  are  cut  with  such  precision,  and  the  colors  so 
fairly  blended.  We  each — and  I  should  have  said 
before,  the  venerable  Elizabeth  Peabody,  of  kinder- 
garten experiments  and  kindergarten  success,  was  also 
a  caller  —  we  each  begged  a  yard  or  so  from  the  unfin- 
ished ball ;  and,  as  she  placed  my  strips  in  my  hand,  I 
^as  prouder  than  if  Victoria  had  given  me  a  '  Garter- 


154  WOMEN  OP  THE   CENTURY. 

ribbon.'  Birth  made  Victoria  a  queen ;  but  her  own 
pure,  sweet  life  makes  Lucretia  Mott  a  queen,  —  queen 
of  a  realm  on  which  the  sun  never  sets,  the  realm  of 
humanity.  If  ever  any  woman  'inherited  the  earth,' 
it  is  this  blessed  Quaker  woman.  I  shall  carry  the 
memory  of  this  brief  call  with  me  till  I  meet  her  in  the 
higher  home." 

A  faithful  picture  is  thus  given  of  this  saintly  woman, 
—  the  "  Saint  Lucretia "  of  those  who  bow  at  the 
shrine  of  reform  and  philanthropy  in  America.  With 
her 

u  Every  wrinkle  is  a  lino  of  beauty;  " 

and  she  long  ago  learned  how  to  "grow  old  gracefully." 
Combe,  the  phrenologist,  pronounced  her  head  the 
finest  he  had  ever  seen  on  a  woman ;  and  it  was  well 
said  by  Theodore  Til  ton,  that,  "  in  the  same  sense  in 
which  the  greatest  man  ever  produced  in  this  country 
was  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  greatest  woman  ever  pro- 
duced in  this  country  is  Lucretia  Mott."  She  early 
engaged  hi  the  temperance  movement  and  in  the  peace 
reform.  But  she  has  been  specially  known  in  connec- 
tion with  the  anti-slavery  effort,  and  the  movement  in 
favor  of  universal  suffrage.  '  In  this  connection  her 
labors  will  be  mentioned  in  another  chapter.  Her 
sister  MARTHA  COFFIN  WEIGHT,  who  deserves  also  to 
be  mentioned  with  philanthropists  and  reformers,  said 
of  her,  "The  striking  traits  of  Lucretia's  character  are 
remarkable  energy  that  defies  even  time,  unswerving 
conscientiousness,  and  all  those  characteristics  that  are 
summed  up  in  the  few  words,  '  love  to  man  and  love  to 
God.' " 

If  the  anti-slavery  laborers  may  also  be  called  phi- 
lanthropists, as  surely  they  should  be,  then  there  arp 


PHILANTHROPIC   WOMEN.  155 

many  more  names  that  should  glesm  on  the  list  of 
philanthropic  women  of  the  century.  But  the  mere 
mention  of  MARIA  WESTON  CHAPMAN,  whose  valiant 
defence  of  anti-slavery  principles  led  to  her  receiving  the 
cognomen  of  Capt.  Chapman,  and  who  was  a  woman  of 
literary  as  well  as  philanthropic  tastes ;  the  mention  of 
her  sisters  also ;  of  the  Grimkd  sisters ;  of  Prudence 
Crandall,  who  persisted  in  teaching  a  colored  pupil  in 
her  school  in  Connecticut,  though  she  was  imprisoned 
one  night  in  a  cell  just  before  occupied  by  a  murderer, 
for  disobeying  a  wicked  law  of  her  State  in  so  doing, 
—  this  line  of  mention  must  suffice,  while  reference  will 
be  made  to  others  in  future  chapters.  Yet  as  long  as 
memory  lasts  to  those  who  have  listened  to  anti-slavery 
philanthropists,  or  read  their  pathetic  appeals  in  behalf 
of  the  slave,  will  the  names  of  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton, 
Ernestine  L.  Rose,  Susan  B.  Anthony,  Sallie  Holley, 
Caroline  Putnam,  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  (whose  "  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin"  prepared  the  way  for  the  war  which 
resulted  in  emancipation),  Anna  Gardner,  Sarah  Pugh, 
&c.,  be  sacred  and  precious. 

Samuel  J.  May  bore  testimony,  that,  "from  the  begin- 
ning of  Mr.  Garrison's  enterprise,  excellent  women  were 
among  his  most  earnest,  devoted,  unshrinking  fellow- 
laborers.  Their  moral  instincts  made  them  quicker  to 
discern  the  right  than  most  men  were ;  and  their  lack 
of  political  discipline  left  them  to  the  guidance  of  their 
convictions  and  humane  feelings."  l 

One  philanthropic  woman,  who  died  in  1818,  was 
the  wife  of  the  joint  founder,  with  his  uncle,  of  the 
well-known  Phillips  Academy.  PHEBE  PHILLIPS  was 
accustomed,  for  years,  to  make  the  health  of  every 
pupil  in  the  academy  a  subject  of  personal  interest. 

1  Recollections  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Conflict. 


156  WOMEN  OP  THE  CENTURY. 

She  sought  to  be  as  a  mother  to  the  students  far  from 
their  homes.  During  the  Revolution  she  was  one  of 
those  who  prepared  bandages,  scraped  lint,  and  made 
garments  for  the  soldiers.  "An  offender  of  justice 
was  once  passing  her  house  on  his  way  to  the  whipping- 
post, when  a  boy  who  observed  him  from  her  window 
could  not  withhold  a  tear.  He  tried  to  conceal  his  emo- 
tion, but  Mrs.  Phillips  saw  the  pearl-drop  of  pity ;  and, 
while  a  kindred  drop  fell  from  her  own  eyes,  she  said 
to  him  with  much  emphasis,  and  as  though  laying 
down  some  golden  maxim,  '  When  you  become  a  law- 
maker, examine  the  subject  of  corporal  punishment, 
and  see  if  it  is  not  unnatural,  vindictive,  and  produc- 
tive of  much  evil.'  She  was  very  discriminating,  and 
could  detect  talent  as  well  as  tears ;  and  addressed  the 
lad  with  a  premonition  that  he  was  destined  to  become 
a  legislator,  which  was  indeed  the  case.  Elected  to  the 
assembly  of  the  State,  with  the  sacred  command  of  his 
early  and  revered  Mentor  impressed  on  his  memory, 
he  early  called  the  attention  of  that  body  to  the  sub- 
ject of  corporal  punishment;  had  the  statute-book 
revised,  and  the  odious  law,  save  in  capital  offences, 
expunged,  and  the  pleasure  of  announcing  the  fact  to 
the  original  suggestor  of  the  movement." 1  DOROTHEA 
L.  Dix,  known  as  the  prisoner's  friend,  was  born  in 
Massachusetts,  and  passed  her  youth  in  or  near  Boston. 
In  earlier  years  she  was  a  teacher,  and  prepared  several 
books,  mostly  for  children.  "  Her  name  was  not  given 
to  any  of  her  works ;  but  we  allude  to  them  here," 
says  Mrs.  Hale,  "  to  show  that  a  refined  literary  taste 
and  genius  are  compatible  with  the  most  active  philan- 
thropy, even  when  compelled  to  seek  its  objects  through 
researches  that  are  both  painful  and  terrible." 

1  Noble  Deeds  of  American  "Women. 


^HILANTHBOPIC  WOMEN.  157 

In  1834  she  went  to  Europe  for  her  health,  and 
there  gained  nmcli  valuable  information  about  charita- 
ble institutions.  "  In  1837  she  returned  to  Boston, 
and  soon  commenced  visiting  the  poor-houses  and 
houses  of  refuge  for  the  unfortunate.  She  also  be- 
came interested  for  boys  in  the  naval  asylum.  Then 
she  went  to  prisons  and  lunatic-asylums,  everywhere 
seeking  to  ameliorate  suffering,  and  instruct  the  igno- 
rant." For  many  years  she  labored  persistently  in 
behalf  of  the  insane.  "  In  founding  the  State  hospi- 
tals in  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Rhode  Island,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Louisiana,  and  North  Carolina,  her  exertions 
were  of  much  importance,  by  preparing  the  public 
mind  to  sympathize  with  this  peculiar  charity."  Dur- 
ing the  war,  she  labored  in  the  hospitals,  but  will 
doubtless  be  mainly  remembered  for  her  faithful  labors 
in  behalf  of  the  insane.  Mrs.  Child  brought  Miss  Dix 
first  to  the  notice  of  many  in  her  charming  "  Letters 
from  New  York,"  where  she  says,  "  Dorothea  L.  Dix, 
our  American  Mrs.  Fry,  the  God-appointed  missionary 
to  prisons  and  almshouses,  told  me  that  her  experience 
more  than  confirmed  her  faith  in  the  power  of  kindness 
over  the  insane  and  vicious. 

"  Among  the  hundreds  of  crazy  people  with  whom  her 
sacred  mission  has  brought  her  into  companionship,  she 
has  not  found  one  individual,  however  fierce  and  turbu- 
lent, that  could  not  be  calmed  by  Scripture  and  prayer, 
uttered  in  low  and  gentle  tones.  The  power  of  reli- 
gious sentiment  over  these  shattered  souls  seems  per- 
fectly miraculous.  The  worship  of  a  quiet,  loving 
heart  affects  them  like  a  voice  from  heaven.  Tearing 
and  rending,  yelling  and  stamping,  singing  and  groan- 
ing, gradually  subside  into  silence ;  and  they  fall  on 
their  knees,  or  gaze  upward  with  clasped  hands,  as  if 


158  WOMEN   OF  THE  OENTUllY. 

they  saw  through  the  opening  darkness  a  golden  gleam 
from  their  Father's  throne  of  love. 

"  On  one  occasion  this  missionary  of  mercy  was 
earnestly  cautioned  not  to  approach  a  raving  maniac. 
He  yelled  frightfully,  day  and  night,  rent  his  garment, 
plucked  out  his  hair,  and  was  so  violent  that  it  was 
supposed  he  would  murder  any  one  who  ventured 
within  his  reach.  Miss  Dix  seated  herself  at  a  little 
distance,  and,  without  appearing  to  notice  him,  began 
to  read,  with  serene  countenance  and  gentle  voice,  cer- 
tain passages  of  Scripture  filled  with  the  spirit  of  ten- 
derness. His  shouts  gradually  subsided,  until  at  last 
he  became  perfectly  still.  When  she  paused,  he  said 
meekly,  '  Read  me  some  more :  it  does  me  good.'  And 
when,  after  a  prolonged  season  of  worship,  she  said,  '  I 
must  go  away  now,'  he  eagerly  replied,  '  No  :  you  can- 
not go.  God  sent  you  to  me  ;  and  you  must  not  go.' 
By  kind  words  and  a  promise  to  come  again,  she  finally 
obtained  permission  to  depart.  '  Give  me  your  hand,' 
said  he.  She  gave  it,  and  smiled  upon  him.  The 
wild  expression  of  his  haggard  countenance  softened  to 
tearfulness,  as  he  said,  *  You  treat  rue  right :  God  sent 
you.' 

"  On  another  occasion,  she  had  been  leading  some 
twenty  or  thirty  maniacs  in  worship ;  and,  seeing 
them  all  quiet  as  lambs  gathered  into  the  Shepherd's 
fold,  she  prepared  to  go  forth  to  other  duties.  In  leav- 
ing the  room,  she  passed  an  insane  young  man  with 
whom  she  had  had  several  interviews.  He  stood  with 
hands  clasped,  and  a  countenance  of  the  deepest  rever- 
ence. With  a  friendly  smile,  she  said,  '  Henry,  are  you 
well  to-day  ? '  —  *  Hush !  hush ! '  replied  he,  sinking  his 
voice  to  a  whisper,  and  gazing  earnestly  on  the  space 
around  her :  '  hush !  there  are  angels  with  you.  They 


PHILANTHROPIC   WOMEN.  159 

have  given  you  their  voice.'  But  let  not  the  formalist 
suppose  that  he  can  work  such  miracles  as  these  in  the 
professed  name  of  Jesus.  Vain  is  the  Scripture  or  the 
prayer,  repeated  by  rote.  They  must  be  the  meek 
utterances  of  a  heart  overflowing  with  love  ;  for  to  such 
only  do  the  angels  '  lend  their  voice.' " 

Mention  might  be  made  of  CLARA  BARTON  and 
FRANCES  DANA  GAGE.  The  one  will  be  mentioned 
among  the  toilers  in  the  war-time,  and  the  other  as  a 
reformer.  JENNIE  C.  COLLINS,  who  has  done  much 
philanthropic  work  in  Boston  and  elsewhere,  has  writ- 
ten her  name  on  the  heart  of  many  a  young  girl  whom 
she  has  helped  to  gain  employment,  and  thereby  saved 
her  from  temptation  to  vice.  "  Boffin's  Bower,"  —  a 
pleasant  retreat  which  she  has  established  in  Boston, 
where  innocent  amusement,  and  opportunities  for  gain- 
ing knowledge  by  means  of  lectures,  readings,  &c.,  is 
afforded  these  girls,  as  well  as  some  way  of  obtaining 
employment, — it  is  hoped,  will  long  continue  a  proof 
of  her  wise  philanthropy.  ANNIE  T.  ENDICOTT,  wife  of 
William  Endicott,  jun.,  was  mentioned  by  the  press  of 
Boston  as  one  of  the  philanthropic  women  of  the  cen- 
tury. A  writer  in  "  The  Transcript "  said,  "  She  was 
beloved  by  friends  who  felt  the  charm  of  her  rare 
powers  of  conversation  and  of  her  unselfish  life.  Dur- 
ing the  civil  war,  she  was  an  efficient  manager  of  the 
Women's  Association,  which  was  auxiliary  to  the  Sani- 
lary  Commission,  devoting  a  large  measure  of  her  tinio 
to  the  preparation  of  supplies,  and  to  the  employment 
of  the  wives  of  soldiers.  Then  and  later,  she  was  in- 
terested in  sending  teachers  to  the  freedinen.  She  was 
appointed  by  Gov.  Claflin  a  trustee  of  the  Lancaster 
Industrial  School  for  Girls.  In  this  service  her  excel- 
lent sense  and  executive  ability  were  conspicuous. 


160  WOMEN   OF   THE   CENTURY. 

She  saw  the  necessity  of  a  change  of  methods,  and 
insisted  on  labor  as  an  essential  part  of  ary  scheme  foi 
the  reformation  of  the  vicious.  Somewhat  disheartened 
with  the  obstructions  which  were  opposed  to  a  reform, 
she  resigned  after  several  years  of  earnest  effort. 

Some  three  or  four  years  ago  she  joined  in  a  move- 
ment for  the  higher  education  of  women,  and  was  to 
the  end  deeply  interested  in  it.  She  was  the  president 
of  the  society ;  and  many  will  long  remember  her  as  she 
shared  in  the  conferences  which  were  held  in  Boston  at 
the  residence  of  Gov.  Claflin.  On  a  visit  to  Athens,  two 
years  ago,  she  gave  such  time  as  was  at  her  command 
to  a  kindred  effort  then  in  progress  in  that  city ;  and  a 
Greek  lady  of  the  highest  culture  was  cheered  by  her 
sympathy  and  counsels.  She  gave  much  time  to  the 
fair  which  was  held  in  Boston  for  the  relief  of  the  French 
after  the  German  invasion.  She  was  associated  with  the 
Christian  work  of  King's  Chapel,  where  she  wor- 
shipped, and  with  other  miscellaneous  activities  of  phi- 
lanthropy." 

Women  have  not  been  wanting  in  those  efforts  to 
prevent  cruelty  to  animals,  which  is  a  part  of  true 
philanthropy.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  CARO- 
LINE L.  BARNARD,  who  provided  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  at  an 
expense  of  three  hundred  dollars,  a  pump  and  stone 
drinking-fountain,  expressly  intended  for  the  use  of  the 
thirsty  horses  whom  she  justly  commiserated.  CARO- 
LINE EARLE  WHITE  of  Philadelphia  has  also  been 
earnest  and  efficient  in  this  department  of  philanthropy, 
caring  especially  for  the  canine  favorites  who  have 
been  lost,  that  they  should  not  be  tormented  or  killed 
without  efforts  to  find  their  owners,  who  would  gladly 
rescue  them,  and  would  not  willingly  mourn  the  loss  of 

"  Something  that  always  loved  me, 
Something  that  I  could  trust." 


PHILANTHROPIC   WOMEN.  1(11 

LINDA  GILBERT  has  chosen  as  her  special  philan 
thropic  work,  the  furnishing  of  libraries  for  prisoners, 
in  the  same  spirit,  doubtless,  with  which  Elizabeth  Fry 
secured  libraries  for  the  coast-guard  in  England  at  their 
lonely  stations.  A  Chicago  paper  says,  "  Miss  Linda 
Gilbert,  after  a  year  or  more  of  labor,  has  finally  accom- 
plished an  undertaking  which  will  make  her  name 
memorable  as  long  as  we  shall  have  a  jail,  and  culrrits 
to  fill  it."  The  same  work  has  been  prosecuted  by  her 
in  other  cities.  A  New  York  paper  says,  — 

"Miss  Linda  Gilbert,  of  No.  143  East  Fifteenth 
Street,  encloses  to  us  a  copy  of  her  report  of  work 
in  New  York,  which  began  Sept.  1,  1873.  Since 
that  date  she  has  disbursed  $3,644.  Seven  hundred 
volumes  were  presented  by  the  young  ladies  of  the 
New  York  Normal  College ;  and  six  hundred  volumes 
have  been  sent  to  the  House  of  Detention.  Of  these 
books  the  publishers  contributed  four  hundred  volumes, 
und  the  balance  by  other  parties.  The  Police  Board 
are  building  a  bookcase  to  contain  them.  These  books 
are  properly  covered  and  classified.  An  intelligent 
man  (now  waiting  the  motion  of  the  courts  in  Ludlow- 
street  Jail)  is  devoting  his  time  to  the  library  work. 
Independent  of  this  library  business,  Miss  Gilbert  has 
three  practical  ladies  who  assist  in  furnishing  homes, 
clothing,  night  lodgings,  and  more  especially  employ- 
ment for  released  prisoners  who  come  from  all  parts  of 
the  country." 

Very  wisely  have  some  of  our  Commonwealths  ap- 
pointed women  as  prison-inspectors.  Mrs.  ELIZABETH 
B.  CHASE,  a  woman  ready  for  every  good  word  and 
work,  has  been  a  lady  visitor  in  Rhode  Island,  appointed 
by  its  governor,  and  afterward  read  a  valuable  paper 
before  the  Prison  Congress  held  in  London,  proving  the 
need  of  the  appointment  of  such  visitors. 


162  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUEY. 

At  a  prison-reform  meeting  held  in  New  York, 
June  8,  1876,  MKS.  C.  F.  COFFIN  of  Indiana,  who  is 
an  official  visitor  to  the  Indiana  State  Prison  for 
Women,  read  an  able  paper  on  the  subject  of  Reform 
in  Prisons,  in  which  she  said,  with  great  wisdom,  that 
the  women's  prison  should  be  entirely  under  the  control 
of  women.  So  should  women  in  our  almshouses  have 
full  charge  of  women  there.  Every  intelligent  woman 
in  this  country  so  believes ;  and  it  is  devoutly  hoped 
that  the  second  century  of  American  independence 
will  see  women  using  their  special  ability  as  philan- 
thropists in  official  capacity,  and  with  all  needful  author- 
ity. 

Gov.  Dingley  of  Maine  wisely  appointed  women  as 
visitors  to  the  insane  hospitals,  and  among  them  Mrs. 
CORDELIA  ADELINE  QUINBY,  the  philanthropic  wife 
of  Rev.  G.  A.  Quinby,  D.D.,  editor  of  "  The  Gospel 
Banner,"  in  Augusta,  Me.  She  is  a  native  of  Lewiston, 
and  taught  in  the  public  schools  of  her  native  State  for 
thirteen  years,  when  she  took  upon  herself  the  duties 
of  a  pastor's  wife,  and  stepmother ;  both  of  which  she 
has  faithfully  performed  for  many  years.  The  care  of 
three  children  of  her  own  was  added  to  these ;  but  she 
has  yet  found  time  to  attend  to  philanthropic  work  in 
various  directions,  and  to  assist  her  husband  in  his 
editorial  labors.  Mrs.  Quinby,  in  her  modesty,  would 
disclaim  prominence  as  a  philanthropist ;  but  it  is  cer- 
tain she  has  ably  seconded  her  husband's  noble  efforts, 
till  both  at  last  have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the 
death-penalty  abolished  in  Maine.  "May  it  soon  be 
abolished  from  the  code  of  every  other  State  in  our 
Union  I"  prays  every  philanthropic  woman  in  the 
land. 

Women    have    not  been  wanting  in  philanthropic 


PHILANTHROPIC  WOMEN.  163 

efforts  towards  the  education  of  the  young.  Volumes 
might  be  written,  and  not  complete  the  tale  of  self- 
sacrificing  effort  by  many,  many  women,  to  educate  their 
relatives,  themselves  often  toiling  in  the  cotton-factory 
that  their  brothers  might  be  supported  in  college,  as 
Lucy  Larcom  has  depicted  Ruth  Woodburn  in  her 
"  Idyl  of  Work,"  saying  of  her  as  she  tended  the  loom 
in  the  cotton-mill,  — 

"  She's  here 

To  save  the  homestead,  and  help  educate 
Brothers  and  sisters.     She  will  do  it  too." 

One  woman  of  this  century,  Miss  SOPHIA  SMITH  of 
Hatfield,  Mass.,  chose  to  bequeath  her  fortune,  and 
found  thereby  the  college  in  Northampton,  known  as 
Smith  College  ;  the  object  of  which  is,  to  establish  an 
institution  for  the  higher  education  of  young  women, 
with  the  design  of  furnishing  them  the  same  facilities 
as  those  enjoyed  by  young  men  in  the  best  colleges  of 
the  land,  as  far  as  practicable.  This  is  a  truly  philan- 
thropic work,  and  deserves  more  space  than  can  be 
accorded  to  the  enterprise  here.  Coming  days  and  gen- 
erations will  attest  its  value. 

MES.  COLT  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  was  also  philan- 
thropic when  she  built  a  church  and  schoolhouse  on  her 
extensive  grounds,  that  the  families  of  those  who  are 
employed  in  Colt's  Armory  may  be  duly  instructed. 
AURORA  PHELPS  has  indicated  the  philanthropic  spirit 
in  her  efforts  to  secure  homesteads  for  women. 

But  what  avails  it  to  mention  more  ?  The  list  is  too 
long,  but  it  is  bright  as  the  midday  sun.  And  among 
the  names  that  shine  jviih  greatest  lustre  will  be  found 
those  of  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  and  Charity  connected 
with  the  Roman  Catholic  and  other  churches,  not  ex- 
cepting the  Quakers ;  for  the  plain  quaint,  garb  of  the 
members  of  the  Society  of  Friends  seldom  fails  to  cover 


164  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

the  heart  of  a  philanthropist,  whether  man  or  woman, 
whether  Isaac  T.  Hopper  or  Lucretia  Mott. 

Since  the  first  publication  of  this  chapter,  the  saintly 
Lucretia  Mott  has  passed  away.  She  died  at  her  beauti- 
ful home,  November  11,  1880,  and  her  funeral  was  at- 
tended by  thousands.  Rev.  Dr.  Furness,  Miss  Phebe 
Couzins,  and  others,  bore  testimony  to  the  value  of  her 
philanthropic  life.  Her  co-worker,  Mrs.  Child,  has  also 
closed  her  useful  life  on  earth. 

The  grave  of  Lydia  Maria  Child,  in  the  old  moss-grown 
cemetery  at  Way  land  Centre,  Mass.,  is  marked  only  by 
a  plain  white  marble  slab,  bearing  her  name  in  full,  age, 
date  of  death,  and  the  words  "  You  call  us  dead.  We 
are  not  dead,  but  truly  living  now." 

Those  who  would  know  more  of  the  benevolent  Sis- 
ters of  Charity  are  referred  to  a  book  called  "  Heroines 
of  Charity,"  which  has  also  an  account  of  Mrs.  ELIZA  A. 
SETON  and  her  labors,  with  some  record  also  of  a  phil- 
anthropic order  called  "  The  Little  Sisters  of  the  Poor," 
and  the  methods  whereby  they  clothe  the  naked  and  sat- 
isfy the  poor  with  bread. 

"  Sorosis,"  the  well-known  society  in  New  York,  com- 
posed of  literary,  professional,  and  philanthropic  women, 
has  a  committee  on  philanthropy,  which  has  done  brave 
work  under  the  earnest  leadership  of  Mrs.  Esther  Herr- 
man,  its  chairman. 

The  "  Society  of  the  Red  Cross,"  at  whose  head  in  this 
country  is  CLARA  BARTON,  has  been  recently  organized, 
with  fair  prospect  of  success  in  doing  good,  both  in  times 
of  war  and  peace. 

A  study  of  philanthropic  success  would  leave  the  stu- 
dent with  the  conviction  that  while  well-organized  char- 
ity is  desirable,  no  organizations  can  preclude  the  neces- 
sity for  individual  philanthropic  effort,  and  God  is  stiU 
saying  to  every  friend  of  humanity,  "  Whatsoever  thy 
hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy  might." 


CHAPTER  VI. 


WOMEN   DURING   THE   CIVIL  WAB. 


Women  of  the  Sanitary  Commission  —  Women  of  the  Christian  Com- 
mission—  Women  Soldiers — Women  Nurses  —  Women  Teachers 
among  the  Freedmen  — Heroic  Women,  North  and  South. 

"  Whispered  low  the  dying  soldier,  pressed  her  hand,  and  faintly  smiled, 
Was  that  pitying  face  his  mother's?  did  she  watch  beside  her  child  ? 
AM  his  stranger  words  with  meaning  her  woman's  heart  supplied, 
With  her  kiss  upon  his  forehead, '  Mother,'  murmured  he,  and  died." 

JOHX  G.  WHITTIEK. 

"  She  stretcheth  out  her  hand  to  the  poor;  yea,  she  reacheth  forth  her  hands  to 
the  needy."  —  PKOV.  xxxi.  20. 

IF  the  women  of  the  Revolution  were  valiant,  and 
manifested  a  commendable  fidelity  to  the  cause 
of  freedom,  and  a  hearty  sympathy  with  its  defenders, 
the  women  who  lived  in  the  days  of  the  Rebellion 
were  no  less  patriotic  and  devoted.  Rev.  Dr.  Bellows, 
who  was  the  efficient  president  of  the  Sanitary  Com- 
mission, bears  a  noble  testimony  to  the  facts  that  prove 
the  truth  of  this  statement.  He  says  in  his  intrbduc- 

165 


166  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

tion  to  the  excellent  work,  "  Woman's  Work  in  the 
Civil  War,"  by  Dr.  Brockett  and  Mrs.  Vauglian, 
"  Women  there  were  in  this  war,  who,  without  a  single 
relative  in  the  army,  denied  themselves  for  the  whole 
four  years  the  comforts  to  which  they  had  been  always 
accustomed,  went  thinly  clad,  took  the  extra  blanket 
from  their  bed,  never  tasted  tea  or  sugar  or  flesh,  thai 
they  might  wind  another  bandage  round  some  un- 
known soldier's  wound,  or  give  some  parched  lips  in 
the  hospital  another  sip  of  wine.  Others  never  let  one 
leisure  moment,  saved  from  lives  of  pledged  labor 
which  barely  earned  them  bread,  go  unemployed  in  the 
service  of  the  soldiers.  God  himself  keeps  this  record : 
it  is  too  sacred  to  be  trusted  to  men.  ...  As  a  rule, 
American  women  exhibited  not  only  an  intense  feeling 
for  the  soldiers  in  their  exposures  and  their  sufferings, 
but  an  intelligent  sympathy  with  the  national  cause, 
equal  to  that  which  furnished,  among  the  men,  two 
million  three  hundred  thousand  volunteers.  It  is  not 
unusual  for  women  of  all  countries  to  weep  and  to 
work  for  those  who  encounter  the  perils  of  war.  But 
the  American  women,  after  giving  up  with  a  princi- 
pled alacrity,  to  the  ranks  of  the  gathering  and  advan- 
cing army,  their  husbands  and  sons,  their  brothers  and 
lovers,  proceeded  to  organize  relief  for  them ;  and 
they  did  it,  not  in  the  spasmodic  and  sentimental  way 
which  has  been  common  elsewhere,  but  with  a  self- 
controlled  and  rational  consideration  of  the  wisest  and 
best  means  of  accomplishing  their  purpose,  which 
showed  them  to  be  in  some  degree  the  products  and 
representatives  of  a  new  social  era,  and  a  new  political 
development.  ...  It  is  impossible  to  over-estimate 
the  amount  of  consecrated  work  done  by  the  loyal 
women  of  the  North,  for  the  army.  Hundreds  of 


WOMEN  DURING  THE  CIVIL  WAR.  167 

thousands  of  women  probably  gave  all  the  leisure  they 
could  command,  and  all  the  money  they  could  save  and 
spare,  to  the  soldiers  for  the  whole  four  years  and 
more  of  the  war.  Amid  discouragements  and  fearful 
delays,  they  never  flagged,  but  to  the  last  increased  in 
zeal  and  devotion.  And  their  work  was  as  systematic 
as  it  was  universal.  .  .  .  They  showed  a  perfect  apti- 
tude for  business,  and  proved  by  their  own  experience 
that  men  can  devise  nothing  too  precise,  too  systematic, 
or  too  complicated  for  women  to  understand,  apply, 
and  improve  upon,  where  there  is  any  sufficient  motive 
for  it.  ...  The  distinctive  features  of  woman's  work 
in  this  war  were  magnitude,  system,  thorough  co-opera- 
tiveness  with  the  other  sex,  distinctness  of  purpose, 
business-like  thoroughness  in  details,  sturdy  persist- 
ence to  the  close.  .  .  .  The  work  which  our  system 
of  popular  education  does  for  girls  and  boys  alike,  and 
which  in  the  middle  and  upper  classes  practically  goes 
farther  with  girls  than  with  boys,  told  magnificently  at 
this  crisis.  Everywhere  well-educated  women  were 
found  fully  able  to  understand,  and  to  explain  to  their 
sisters,  the  public  questions  involved  in  the  war. 
Everywhere  the  newspapers,  crowded  with  interest  and 
with  discussions,  found  eager  and  appreciative  readers 
among  the  gentler  sex.  Everywhere  started  up  women 
acquainted  with  the  order  of  public  business  ;  able  to 
call  and  preside  over  public  meetings  of  their  own  sex, 
act  as  secretaries  and  committees,  draft  constitutions 
and  by-laws,  open  books  and  keep  accounts  with 
adequate  precision,  appreciate  system,  and  postpone 
private  inclinations  or  preferences  to  general  principles, 
enter  into  extensive  correspondence  with  their  own 
sex,  co-operate  in  the  largest  and  most  rational  plans 
proposed  by  men  who  had  studied  carefully  the  subject 


168  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTTJBY. 

of  soldiers'  relief,  and  adhere,  through  good  report  and 
through  evil  report,  to  organizations  which  commended 
themselves  to  their  judgment,  in  spite  of  local,  secta- 
rian, or  personal  jealousies  and  detractions.  ...  Of  the 
practical  talent,  the  personal  worth,  the  aptitude  for 
public  service,  the  love  of  self-sacrificing  duty,  thus 
developed  and  nursed  into  power,  and  brought  tc  the 
knowledge  of  its  possessors  and  their  communities,  it: 
is  difficult  to  speak  too  warmly.  Thousands  of  women 
learned  in  this  work  to  despise  frivolity,  gossip,  fashion, 
and  idleness ;  learned  to  think  soberly  and  without 
prejudice  of  the  capacities  of  their  own  sex ;  and  thus 
did  more  to  advance  the  rights  of  woman,  by  proving 
her  gifts  and  her  fitness  for  public  duties,  than  a  whole 
library  of  arguments  and  protests. 

"  The  prodigious  exertions  put  forth  by  the  women 
who  founded  and  conducted  the  great  fairs  for  the 
soldiers  in  a  dozen  principal  cities,  and  in  many  large 
towns,  were  only  surpassed  by  the  planning,  skill,  and 
administrative  ability  which  accompanied  their  prog- 
ress, and  the  marvellous  success  in  which  they  ter- 
minated. Months  of  anxious  preparation,  where  hun- 
dreds of  committees  vied  with  each  other  in  long- 
headed schemes  for  securing  the  co-operation  of  the 
several  trades  and  industries  allotted  to  each,  and 
during  which  laborious  days  and  anxious  nights  were 
unintermittingly  given  to  the  wearing  work,  were  fol- 
lowed by  weeks  of  personal  service  in  the  fairs  them- 
selves, where  the  strongest  women  found  their  vigor 
inadequate  to  the  task,  and  hundreds  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  long  illness,  and  some  of  sudden  death.  These 
sacrifices  and  far-seeing  provisions  were  justly  repaid 
by  almost  fabulous  returns  of  money,  which,  to  the 
extent  of  nearly  three  million  dollars,  flowed  into  the 


WOMEN   DUKING  THE  CIVIL  WAR.  169 

treasury  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission. 
The  chief  women  who  inaugurated  the  several  great 
fairs  at  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Brooklyn,  Boston, 
Chicago,  Cincinnati,  St.  Louis,  and  administered  these 
vast  movements,  were  not  behind  the  ablest  men  in 
the  land  in  their  grasp  and  comprehension  of  the 
business  in  hand ;  and  often,  in  comparison  with  the 
men  associated  with  them,  exhibited  a  finer  scope,  a 
better  spirit,  and  a  more  victorious  faith.  But  for  the 
women  of  America,  the  great  fairs  would  never  have 
been  born,  or  would  have  died  ignominiously  in  their 
gilded  cradles.  Their  vastness  of  conception  and  their 
splendid  results  are  to  be  set  as  an  everlasting  crown 
on  woman's  capacity  for  large  and  money-yielding  enter- 
prises. The  women  who  led  them  can  never  sink  back 
into  obscurity." 

Besides  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission, 
which  was  created  on  the  9th  of  June,  1861,  there  was 
organized  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  which 
"  only  supplied  the  wants  of  Western  armies,  and  of 
the  freedmen  and  white  refugees  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley ;  "  *  and  whose  first  authority  to  act  came  from 
Gen.  Fremont,  Sept.  5,  1861.  There  were  also  several 
State  Sanitary  Commissions ;  and  in  November,  1861, 
what  was  called  the  United  States  Christian  Commis- 
sion was  organized  by  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations  convened  in  New  York  City  at  that  time. 
"  The  general  character  of  the  duties  of  the  Commis- 
sion was  defined  at  the  meeting  that  brought  it  into 
existence ;  its  grand  object  as  avowed  was  to  promote 
the  physical  comfort  and  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the 
brave  men  of  the  army  and  navy,  in  the  field,  in  the 
hospital,  the  prison,  or  wherever  they  may  be  found. 

i  Annual  Cyclopedia  for  1864,  p.  739. 


170  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUEY. 

Like  the  Government,  it  embraces  within  the  range 
of  its  influence  the  whole  Union,  and  provides  for  the 
material  and  spiritual  necessities  of  suffering  humanity, 
without  regard  to  race,  creed,  or  position.  It  aims  to 
save  life  in  the  hour  of  peril ;  to  ameliorate  the  condi- 
tion of  our  soldiers  and  seamen  ;  to  perform,  in  the 
aridst  of  war,  the  office  of  a  kind  friend ;  to  supply,  as 
far  as  possible,  the  place  of  home ;  to  furnish  opportune 
and  substantial  relief  when  required ;  to  bind  up  the 
wounds ;  to  pour  in  the  wine  and  the  oil  of  love  and 
peace ;  to  speak  a  word  of  sympathy  and  encourage- 
ment to  the  suffering  and  depressed  ;  to  bring  the  influ- 
ences of  the  gospel  to  bear  upon  those  who  are  far 
from  home  and  its  privileges,  exposed  to  the  dangers 
and  temptations  peculiar  to  the  camp ;  to  arrest  the 
thoughtless  in  their  course,  and  reclaim  the  wayward ; 
to  send  forth  the  living,  practical  teachers  to  whisper 
Christian  consolation  to  the  dying,  the  wounded,  the 
heavy  laden  in  heart." * 

And  all  this  work  was  faithfully  done  by  every  Com- 
mission ;  women  laboring  in  them  all,  and  everywhere 
toiling  faithfully  and  successfully.  To  narrate  their 
self-denying  deeds,  to  write  all  their  names  even,  would 
require  a  volume  of  many  pages ;  and  they  must  be  left 
unwritten  and  untold,  but  not  unhonored  and  un- 
known. There  were  thousands,  beside  those  who  were 
actively  connected  with  the  Commissions,  that  labored 
for  the  comfort  of  the  soldier.  Quaker  women,  who 
could  not  sanction  war  and  its  horrors,  were  "left  at 
liberty  "  to  pursue  a  course  of  benevolence  toward  the 
wounded,  "  as  best  wisdom  might  direct ; "  and  they 
did  not  fail  to  hear  the  voice  within,  and  heed  it,  as  it 
told  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  and  said,  "  Go  thou,  and 
do  likewise." 

i  Annual  Cyclopedia  for  180M,  p.  802. 


WOMEN   DURING  THE  CIVIL  WAR.  171 

There  is  one  aged  woman  in  Philadelphia,  who  has 
been  termed  the  Cornelia  of  America ;  for  she,  like  the 
mother  of  the  Gracchi  of  whom  Plutarch  speaks,  con- 
versed of  the  sacrifices  of  her  sons  for  their  country 
"  with  the  calmness  that  proceeds  from  unexampled 
fortitude."  She  enjoys  also  the  distinction  of  being 
the  oldest  living  female  graduate  of  any  institution  in 
America.  Her  name  is  MAEY  ELLET.  Her  diploma 
from  the  Jay  Ladies'  Academy,  of  Philadelphia,  was 
given  to  her  in  her  fifteenth  year.  She  was  born  on 
the  17th  of  June,  1779.  She  is  the  daughter  of  that 
Hannah  Erwin  Israel  who  is  mentioned  as  a  heroine  ot 
the  Revolution  in  the  chapter  concerning  those  noble 
women,  and  is  herself  the  mother  and  grandmother  of 
heroes.  Her  son,  Col.  Charles  Ellet,  jun.,  lost  his  life 
in  the  service  of  his  country ;  and  the  son  of  that  son 
died  from  the  effects  of  loyal  efforts,  which  impaired 
his  health. 

A  clergyman  called  upon  her,  in  company  with  Mr. 
George  H.  Stuart,  president  of  the  Christian  Commis- 
sion, whom  she  desired  to  employ  as  her  almoner  in  dis- 
tributing the  proceeds  of  two  beautiful  and  valuable 
shawls  among  the  widows  and  orphans  of  soldiers 
fallen  in  battle.  The  body  of  her  grandson,  Charles 
Rives  Ellet,  had  just  arrived ;  and  the  clergyman  ex- 
pressed the  hope  that  the  Lord  would  sustain  her  under 
her  bereavement.  Her  answer  was  worthy  of  the 
American  Cornelia.  She  stated  that  she  had  given  her 
son,  Col.  Ellet  of  the  Ram  Fleet,  and  Brig.-Gen.  Ellet 
of  the  Marine  Brigade,  and  four  grandchildren ;  add- 
ing, "  I  do  not  regret  the  gift  to  my  country.  If  I  had 
twenty  sons,  I  would  give  them  all,  for  the  country 
must  be  preserved.  And,  if  I  were  twenty  years  younger, 
I  would  go  and  fight,  myself,  to  the  last"  The  above 


172  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTUKY. 

anecdote  of  her  patriotism  is  from  a  sketch  by  John 
W.  Forney  in  1869. 

There  were  WOMEN  SOLDIEKS  in  the  war  of  the 
Rebellion  as  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution.  Women 
were  not  only  on  the  battle-field  to  take  care  of  our 
brave  defenders,  but  they  were  there,  not  seldom,  to 
show  that  women  can  be  soldiers  in  our  land  and  times. 

The  names  of  ANNIE  ETHERIDGE  and  others  are 
dear  to  many  regiments  as  the  names  of  women  who 
were  noble  and  virtuous  in  character  and  life,  and  were 
brave  and  fearless  on  the  field  of  battle.  It  is  confi- 
dently asserted  that  "the  number  of, women  who  ac- 
tually bore  arms  in  the  war,  or  who,  though  generally 
attending  a  regiment  as  nurses,  at  times  engaged  in  the 
actual  conflict,  was  much  larger  than  is  generally  sup- 
posed, and  embraces  persons  of  all  ranks  of  society." 
Those  who  from  whatever  cause,  whether  romance, 
love,  or  patriotism  (and  all  these  had  their  influence), 
donned  the  male  attire,  and  concealed  their  sex,  are 
hardly  entitled  to  a  place  in  our .  record,  since  they  did 
not  seek  to  be  known  as  women,  but  preferred  to  pass 
for  men ;  but  aside  from  these  there  were  not  a  few 
who,  without  abandoning  the  dress  or  the  prerogatives 
of  their  sex,  yet  performed  skilfully  and  well  the  duties 
of  soldiers.  Among  them  we  may  name  Madame  Tur- 
chin,  wife  of  Gen.  Turchin,  who  rendered  essential 
service  by  her  coolness,  her  thorough  knowledge  of 
military  science,  her  undaunted  courage,  and  her  skill 
in  command.  She  is  the  daughter  of  a  Russian  officer, 
and  had  been  brought  up  in  the  camp,  where  she  was 
the  pet  and  favorite  of  the  regiment  up  to  nearly  the 
time  of  her  marriage  to  Gen.  Turchin,  then  a  subordi- 
nate officer  in  that  army.  When  the  war  commenced, 
she  and  her  husband  had  been  for  a  few  years  residents 


WOMEN  DURING  THE  CIVIL   WAR.  173 

of  Illinois ;  and,  when  her  husband  was  commissioned 
colonel  of  a  regiment  of  volunteers,  she  prepared  at 
once  to  follow  him  to  the  field.  During  the  march  into 
Tennessee  in  the  spring  of  1862,  Col.  Turchin  was  'taken 
seriously  ill,  and  for  some  days  was  carried  in  an  ambu- 
lance on  the  route. 

Madame  Turchin  took  command  of  the  regiment 
during  his  illness,  and,  while  ministering  kindly  and 
tenderly  to  her  husband,  filled  his  place  admirably  as 
commanding  the  regiment.  Her  administration  was  so 
judicious  that  no  complaint  or  mutiny  was  manifested ; 
and  her  commands  were  obeyed  with  the  utmost  prompt- 
ness. In  the  battles  that  followed,  she  was  constantly 
under  fire,  now  encouraging  the  men,  and  anon  rescu- 
ing some  wounded  man  from  the  place  where  he  had 
fallen,  administering  restoratives,  and  bringing  him  off 
to  the  field  hospital.  ...  In  all  the  subsequent  cam- 
paigns in  the  West,  this  general's  wife  was  in  the  field, 
confining  herself  usually  to  ministrations  of  mercy  to 
the  wounded,  but  ready,  if  occasion  required,  to  lead 
the  troops  into  action,  and  always  manifesting  the  most 
perfect  indifference  to  the  shot  and  shell  or  the  whirring 
Minie  balls  that  fell  around  her.  She  seemed  entirely 
devoid  of  fear,  and,  though  so  constantly  exposed  to  the 
enemy's  fire,  never  received  even  a  scratch. 

The  Rev.  A.  H.  Conant,  who  was  the  devoted  chap- 
lain of  the  Nineteenth  Illinois  while  this  lady  was  con- 
nected with  it,  wrote  about  her  to  his  wife,  in  a  letter 
dated  Aug.  20,  1861.  The  Rev.  Robert  CoUyer  quotes 
it  in  his  Memoir  of  the  lamented  chaplain.  Mr.  Conant 
wrote  thus  :  "  The  few  ladies  —  officers'  wives  in  camp 
—  are  worth  more  than  a  file  of  soldiers  in  keeping 
order.  I  wish  we  could  have  twice  as  many  ;  but  it  is 
no  place  for  a  woman  of  delicate  nerves.  The  most 


174  WOMEN   OF   THE   CENTURY. 

shocking  sights,  sounds,  and  odors  of  all  sorts  are  of 
perpetual  occurrence  :  yet  a  strong-minded  and  pure- 
hearted  woman  may  pass  through  it  all  unharmed.  Mrs. 
Turchin  blooms  like  a  fair  flower  in  it.  She  reminds 
me  very  much  of  Lucy  Stone  Black  well.  With  all  the 
refinement  of  a  lady,  she  has  the  energy  and  self-reli- 
ance of  a  man  ;  she  feels  able  to  take  charge  of  herself, 
carries  a  nice  little  revolver  and  dagger  in  her  belt,  and 
has  a  dignity  of  manner  and  bearing  that  secures 
respect  from  the  roughest  soldier." 

Another  remarkable  heroine,  who,  while  from  the 
lower  walks  of  life,  was  yet  faithful  and  unwearied  in 
her  labors  for  the  relief  of  the  soldiers  who  were 
wounded,  and  who  not  unfrequently  took  her  place  in 
the  ranks,  or  cheered  and  encouraged  the  men  when 
they  were  faltering  and  ready  to  retreat,  was  Bridget 
Divers,  a  stout  robust  Irishwoman  who  accompanied 
the  First  Michigan  Cavalry  regiment,  in  which  her 
husband  was  a  private,  to  the  field,  and  remained 
with  the  regiment  and  the  brigade  to  which  it  belonged 
until  the  close  of  the  war.  She  became  well  known 
throughout  the  brigade,  for  her  fearlessness  and  daring, 
and  her  skill  in  bringing  off  the  wounded.  Occasion- 
ally when  a  soldier  whom  she  knew  fell  In  action,  after 
rescuing  him  if  he  was  only  wounded,  she  would  take 
his  place,  and  fight  as  bravely  as  the  best."  Mrs.  Hus- 
band, in  Brockett's  interesting  volume  about  the  Work 
of  Women  in  the  War,  tells  this  story  of  her  energy 
and  courage:  "  In  one  of  Sheridan's  grand  raids,  dur- 
ing the  latter  days  of  the  Rebellion,  she  as  usual  rode 
with  the  troops  night  and  day,  wearing  out  several 
horses  until  they  dropped  from  exhaustion.  In  a  severe 
cavalry  engagement,  in  which  her  regiment  took  a  prom- 
inent part,  her  colonel  was  wounded,  and  her  captain 


WOMEN   DURING  THE  CIVIL   WAR.  175 

killed.  She  accompanied  the  former  to  the  icar,  where 
she  ministered  to  his  needs ;  and,  when  placed  in  the 
cars  bound  to  City  Point  Hospital,  she  remained  with 
him,  giving  all  the  relief  in  her  power,  on  that  fatigu- 
ing journey,  although  herself  almost  exhausted,  having 
been  without  sleep  four  days  and  nights.  After  seeing 
her  colonel  safely  and  comfortably  lodged  in  the  hospi- 
tal, she  took  one  night's  rest,  and  returned  to  the  front. 
Finding  that  her  captain's  body  had  not  been  recovered, 
it  being  hazardous  to  make  the  attempt,  she  resolved  to 
rescue  it,  as  '  it  never  should  be  left  on  rebel  soil.'  So, 
with  her  orderly  for  sole  companion,  she  rode  fifteen 
miles  to  the  scene  of  the  late  conflict,  found  the  body 
she  sought,  strapped  it  upon  her  horse,  rode  back  seven 
miles  to  an  embalmer's,  where  she  waited  whilst  the 
body  was  embalmed;  then,  again  strapping  it  on  her 
horse,  she  rode  several  miles  farther  to  the  cars,  in 
which  with  her  precious  burden  she  proceeded  to  City 
Point,  there  obtained  a  rough  coffin,  and  forwarded  the 
whole  to  Michigan.  Without  any  delay,  Bridget 
returned  to  her  regiment,  and  told  some  officers  that 
wounded  men  had  been  left  on  the  field  from  which  she 
had  rescued  her  captain's  body.  They  did  not  credit 
her  tale  :  so  she  said,  4  Furnish  me  some  ambulances, 
and  I  will  bring  them  in.'  The  conveyances  were 
given  her  :  she  retraced  her  steps  to  the  deserted  battle- 
field, and  soon  had  some  eight  or  ten  poor  sufferers  in 
the  wagons  on  their  way  to  camp.  The  roads  were 
rough,  and  their  moans  and  cries  gave  evidence  of 
intense  agony.  While  still  some  miles  from  their  desti- 
nation, Bridget  saw  several  rebels  approaching.  She 
ordered  the  drivers  to  quicken  their  pace,  and  endeav- 
ored to  urge  her  horse  forward ;  but  he  balked,  and 
vefused  to  move.  The  drivers,  becoming  alarmed, 


176  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

deserted  their  charge,  and  fled  to  the  woods,  while  the 
wounded  men  begged  that  they  might  not  be  left  to  the 
mercy  of  the  enemy,  and  to  suffer  in  Southern  prisons. 
The  rebels  soon  carne  up.  Bridget  plead  with  them  to 
leave  the  sufferers  unmolested ;  but  they  laughed  at  her, 
took  the  horses  from  the  ambulances,  and  such  articles 
of  value  as  the  men  possessed,  and  then  dashed  off  the 
way  they  came.  Poor  Bridget  was  almost  desperate, 
darkness  coming  on,  and  with  no  one  to  help  her,  the 
wounded  men  beseeching  her  not  to  leave  them.  For- 
tunately, an  officer  of  our  army  rode  up  to  see  what  the 
matter  was,  and  soon  sent  horses  and  assistance  to  the 
party.  When  the  war  ended,  Bridget  accompanied  her 
regiment  to  Texas,  from  whence  she  returned  with  them 
to  Michigan ;  but  the  attractions  of  army  life  were  too 
strong  to  be  overcome,  and  she  has  since  joined  one  of 
the  regiments  of  the  regular  army  stationed  on  the 
plains  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Rocky  Mountains." 

Mrs.  Katy  Brownell,  the  wife  of  an  orderly  ser- 
geant of  the  First  and  afterwards  of  the  Fifth  Rhode 
Island  Infantry,  who  like  Madame  Turchin  was  born 
in  the  camp,  and  was  the  daughter  of  a  Scottish  soldier 
of  the  British  army,  was  another  of  those  half-soldier 
heroines.  Adopting  a  semi-military  dress,  and  prac- 
tising daily  with  the  sword  and  rifle,  she  became  as 
skilful  a  shot  and  as  expert  a  swordsman  as  any  of  the 
company  of  sharpshooters  to  which  she  was  attached. 
Of  this  company  she  was  the  chosen  color-bearer ;  and 
asking  no  indulgences,  she  marched  with  the  men,  car- 
rying the  flag,  and  participating  in  the  battle  as  bravely 
as  any  of  her  comrades.  In  the  first  battle  of  Bull 
Run,  she  stood  by  her  colors,  and  maintained  her 
position  till  all  her  regiment  and  several  others  had 
retreated ;  and  came  very  near  falling  into  the  hands  of 


WOMEN   DURING   THE  CIVIL  WAS.  177 

the  enemy.  She  was  in  the  expedition  of  Gen.  Buru- 
side  to  Roanoke  Island  and  Newbern,  and  by  her  cool- 
ness and  intrepidity  saved  the  Fifth  Rhode  Island  from 
being  fired  upon  by  our  own  troops  by  mistake.  Her 
husband  was  severely  wounded  in  an  engagement  at 
Newbern ;  and  she  rescued  him  from  his  position  of 
danger.  He  was  finally  pronounced  unfit  for  service ; 
and  she  returned  to  Rhode  Island  with  him,  and 
received  her  discharge  from  the  army.  These  are  only 
a  few  of  the  many  instances  where  women  showed  that 
they  could  and  would  be  soldiers,  warriors,  defend- 
ers of  the  "  dear  old  flag."  It  is  difficult  to  ascertain 
all  the  facts  relative  to  such  instances  ;  and  I  am  obliged 
to  confess,  that,  in  some  cases,  the  women- warriors  failed 
to  maintain  that  unsullied  character  without  which 
courage  and  daring  are  of  little  worth.  But  whether 
the  women  who  fought  in  Revolutionary  days  or  in 
the  late  war,  or  defended  their  homes  in  "  bleeding 
Kansas,"  as  many  were  obliged  to  do  with  rifle  and  ball, 
—  whether  they  were  honest  and  virtuous  women,  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  question  of  their  ability  to  fight. 
Facts  —  the  stern  uncompromising  facts  of  history  — 
show  that  women  have  been  warriors  ;  and  what  woman 
has  done  woman  can  do.  So  when  the  opponents  of 
woman  suffrage  say,  "  You  can't  fight :  therefore  you 
should  not  vote,"  point  quietly  to  the  record,  and  say, 
"  Women  can  fight,  if  they  will."  Heaven  be  praised 
that  they  do  not  all  wish  to  fight !  or  earth  would  be  a 
pandemonium  at  once.  But  Heaven  be  praised  also, 
that,  when  Kansas  homes  were  in  danger,  the  women 
were  as  brave  as  the  men ;  and  when  rebellion  aimed  a 
parricidal  blow  at  our  country's  flag,  and  all  our  free 
and  glorious  institutions  were  imperilled,  women  were 
not  wanting  to  prepare  sanitary  stores,  to  tend  the 


178  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

dying  soldiers  in  our  hospitals,  ay,  and  to  fight,  if  they 
chose,  the  battle  of  liberty. 

The  WOMEN  NURSES  of  those  four  years  of  war 
won  deserved  commendation.  The  book  called  "  Wo- 
man's Work  in  the  War  "  renders  due  praise  to  those 
devoted  patriots.  Rev.  Dr.  Bellows,  referring  to  them 
and  their  noble  work,  in  his  introduction,  said,  "  Of 
the  labors  of  women  in  the  hospitals  and  in  the  field, 
this  book  gives  a  far  fuller  history  than  is  likely  to 
be  got  from  any  other  source,  as  this  sort  of  service 
cannot  be  recorded  in  the  histories  of  organized  work. 
For  far  the  largest  part  of  this  work  was  done  by 
persons  of  exceptional  energy  and  some  fine  natural 
aptitude  for  the  service,  which  was  independent  of 
organizations,  and  hardly  submitted  itself  to  any  rules 
except  the  impulses  of  devoted  love  for  the  work, — 
supplying  tact,  patience,  and  resources.  The  women 
who  did  hospital  service  continuously,  or  who  kept 
themselves  near  the  base  of  armies  in  the  field,  or  who 
moved  among  the  camps,  and  travelled  with  the  corps, 
were  an  exceptional  class,  as  rare  as  heroines  always 
are ;  a  class  representing  no  social  grade,  but  coming 
from  all ;  belonging  to  no  rank  or  age  of  life  in  particu- 
lar, sometimes  young  and  sometimes  old,  sometimes 
refined  and  sometimes  rude ;  now  of  fragile  physical 
aspect,  and  then  of  extraordinary  robustness :  but,  in 
all  cases,  women  with  a  mighty  love  and  earnestness  in 
their  hearts,  —  a  love  and  pity,  and  an  ability  to  show  it 
forth  and  to  labor  in  behalf  of  it,  equal  to  that  which 
in  other  departments  of  life  distinguishes  poets,  philos- 
ophers, sages,  and  saints,  from  ordinary  or  average  men. 
Moved  by  an  indomitable  desire  to  serve  in  person  the 
victims  of  wounds  and  sickness,  a  few  hundred  women, 
impelled  by  instincts  which  assured  them  of  their  abil- 


WOMEN   CUBING  THE   CIVIL  TV  A.R.  179 

ity  to  endure  the  hardships,  overcome  the  obstacles,  and 
adjust  themselves  to  the  unusual  and  unferninine  cir- 
cumstances in  which  they  would  be  placed,  made  their 
way  through  all  obstructions  at  home,  and  at  the  seat 
of  war,  or  in  the  hospitals,  to  the  bedsides  of  the  sick 
and  wounded  men.  ...  A  grander  collection  of 
women,  whether  considered  in  their  intellectual  or  their 
moral  qualities,  their  heads  or  their  hearts,  I  have  not 
had  the  happiness  of  knowing,  than  the  women  I  saw 
in  the  hospitals:  they  were  the  flower  of  their  sex. 
Great  as  were  the  labors  of  those  who  superintended 
the  operations  at  home,  of  collecting  and  preparing 
supplies  for  the  hospitals  and  the  field,  I  cannot  but 
think  that  the  women  who  lived  in  the  hospitals  or 
among  the  soldiers  required  a  force  of  character  and  a 
glow  of  devotion  and  self-sacrifice,  of  a  rarer  kind. 
They  were  really  heroines.  They  conquered  their  fem- 
inine sensibility  at  the  sight  of  blood  and  wounds, 
their  native  antipathy  to  disorder,  confusion,  and  vio- 
lence ;  subdued  the  rebellious  delicacy  of  their  more 
exquisite  senses ;  lived  coarsely,  and  dressed  and  slept 
rudely ;  they  studied  the  caprices  of  men  to  whom 
their  ties  were  simply  human,  —  men  often  ignorant, 
feeble-minded,  out  of  their  senses,  raving  with  pain 
and  fever ;  they  had  a  still  harder  service,  to  bear  with 
the  pride,  the  official  annoyance,  the  hardness  or  the 
folly,  perhaps  the  impertinence  and  presumption,  of 
half-trained  medical  men,  whom  the  urgencies  of  the 
case  had  fastened  on  the  service.  Their  position  was 
always  critical,  equivocal,  suspected,  and  to  be  justified 
only  by  their  undeniable  and  conspicuous  merits,  their 
wisdom,  patience,  and  proven  efficiency  ;  justified  by 
the  love  and  reverence,  they  exacted  from  the  soldiers 
themselves.  True,  the  rewards  of  these  women  were 


180  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

equal  to  their  sacrifices.  They  drew  their  pay  from  a 
richer  treasury  than  that  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment. I  never  knew  one  of  them  who  had  had  a  long 
service,  whose  memory  of  the  grateful  looks  of  the 
dying,  of  the  few  awkward  words  that  fell  from  the 
lips  of  thankful  convalescents,  or  the  speechless  eye- 
following  of  the  dependent  soldier,  or  the  pressure  of  a 
rough  hand  softened  to  womanly  gentleness  by  long 
illness,  was  not  the  sweetest  treasure  of  all  their  lives. 
Nothing  in  the  power  of  the  nation  to  give  or  to  say 
can  ever  compare  for  a  moment  with  the  proud  satisfac- 
tion which  every  brave  soldier  who  risked  his  life  for 
his  country  always  carries  in  his  heart  of  hearts ; 
and  no  public  recognition,  no  thanks  from  a  saved 
nation,  can  ever  add  any  thing  of  much  importance  to 
the  rewards  of  those  who  tasted  the  actual  joy  of  min- 
istering, with  their  own  hands  and  hearts,  to  the  wants 
of  our  sick  and  dying  men." 

The  hospitals  established  by  the  Empress  Helena  in 
the  fifth  century  were  an  evidence  of  Christian  feeling ; 
and  it  was  the  same  Christianity  in  action,  that  was 
evident  in  Margaret  Fuller  and  in  Florence  Nightingale 
when  in  Italy  and  in  the  Crimea  they  nursed  the 
wounded  soldiers.  That  same  Christian  spirit  sent 
women,  young  and  old,  grave  and  gay,  homely  and 
handsome,'to  the  hospitals  where  "  our  boys  in  blue  " 
needed  their  assistance.  Bravely  they  wrought,  and  often 
bravely  they  fell,  by  the  side  of  those  whom  they  nursed, 
and  were  the  martyrs  of  liberty  as  well  as  they.  Helen 
L.  Gilson  of  Massachusetts  was  one  of  those.  She  is 
mentioned  in  the  book  "  Woman's  Work  in  the  War;" 
but  the  sixteen  pages  given  to  her  are  not  enough  to 
show  her  devotion  to  the  cause  for  which  she  sacrificed 
health ;  and  it  is  feared  the  life  wlu'ch  she  yielded  not 


WOMEN   DURING   THE   CIVIL   WAR.  181 

long  after  the  war  was  a  final  sacrifice,  for  which  those 
who  knew  her  best  were  least  prepared.  "  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1862  Miss  Gilson  was  for  some  time  attached  to 
the  Hospital  Transport  Service,  and  was  on  board  '  The 
Knickerbocker '  when  up  the  Panmnky  River  at  White 
Horse,  and  afterward  at  Harrison's  Landing  during  the 
severe  battles  which  marked  McClellan's  movement 
from  the  Chickahominy  to  the  James  River.  Amidst 
the  terrible  scenes  of  those  eventful  days,  the  quiet 
energy,  the  wonderful  comforting  and  soothing  power, 
and  the  perfect  adaptability  of  Miss  Gilson  to  her 
work,  were  conspicuous.  Whatever  she  did  was  done 
well,  and  so  noiselessly  that  only  the  results  were  seen. 
When  not  more  actively  employed,  she  would  sit  by 
the  bedsides  of  the  suffering  men,  and  charm  away  their 
pain  by  the  magnetism  of  her  low,  calm  voice,  and 
soothing  words.  She  sang  for  them ;  and  kneeling 
beside  them,  where  they  lay  amidst  all  the  agonizing 
sights  and  sounds  of  the  hospital  wards,  and  even  upon 
the  field  of  carnage,  her  voice  would  ascend  in  petition 
for  peace,  for  relief,  for  sustaining  grace  in  the  brief 
journey  to  the  other  world,  carrying  with  it  their  souls 
into  the  realms  of  an  exalted  faith."1  Dr.  William 
Howell  Reed  thus  eloquently  testified  concerning  this 
sainted  nurse,  who,  though  superior  in  education  and 
refinement  perhaps  to  many,  was  yet  in  her  efforts  for 
the  soldiers  a  type  of  the  ether  faithful  nurses  from  the 
East  and  West.  "  One  afternoon  just  before  the  evac- 
uation, when  the  atmosphere  of  our  rooms  was  close 
and  foul,  and  all  were  longing  for  a  breath  of  our  cooler 
northern  air,  while  the  men  were  moaning  in  pain  or 
were  restless  with  fever,  and  our  hearts  were  sick  with 
pity  for  the  sufferers,  I  heard  a  light  step  upon  the 

1  Womac's  Work  in  the  Civil  War,  p.  135. 


182  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

stairs  ;  and  looking  up  I  saw  a  young  lady  enter,  who 
brought  with  her  such  an  atmosphere  of  calm  and 
cheerful  courage,  so  much  freshness,  such  an  expression 
of  gentle,  womanly  sympathy,  that  her  mere  presence 
seemed  to  revive  the  drooping  spirits  of  the  men,  and 
to  give  a  new  power  of  endurance  through  the  long 
and  painful  hours  of  suffering.  First  with  one,  then 
at  the  side  of  another,  a  friendly  word  here,  a  gentle 
nod  and  smile  there,  a  tender  sympathy  with  each  pros- 
trate sufferer,  a  sympathy  which  could  read  in  his  eyes 
his  longing  for  home  love  and  for  the  presence  of  some 
absent  one,  —  in  those  few  minutes  hers  was  indeed  an 
angel  ministry.  Before  she  left  the  room,  she  sang  to 
them,  —  first  some  stirring  national  melody,  then  some 
sweet  or  plaintive  hymn  to  strengthen  the  fainting 
heart ;  and  I  remember  how  the  notes  penetrated  to 
every  part  of  the  building.  Soldiers  with  less  severe 
wounds,  from  the  rooms  above,  began  to  crawl  out  into 
the  entries;  and  men  from  below  crept  up  on  their  hands 
and  knees  to  catch  every  note,  and  to  receive  of  the 
benediction  of  her  presence  —  for  such  it  was  to  them. 
Then  she  went  away.  I  did  not  know  who  she  was ; 
but  I  was  as  much  moved  and  melted  as  any  soldier  of 
them  all.  This  is  my  first  reminiscence  of  Helen  L. 
Gilson."  l 

Other  writers  than  those  mentioned  —  Rev.  Charles 
H.  Leonard  in  the  "  Ladies'  Repository,"  and  Mrs.  P.  M. 
Clapp  in  the  "  Old  and  New,"  and  others  —  have  also 
told  the  story  of  her  noble  work.  Her  relative,  Hon. 
Frank  B.  Fay,  under  whose  charge  she  went  to  the 
battle-fields,  has  sanctioned  all  their  praise  ;  and  the 
fast-falling  tears  of  many  soldiers  who  attended  her 
funeral,  and  laid  their  tributes  of  violets  on  her  casket, 

1  Hospital  Life  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 


\VOMEX  DURING   THE   CIVIL  WAR.  183 

while  they  reverently  bent  and  touched  with  quivering 
lips  the  icy  brow  of  their  true  friend,  attest  the  charac- 
ter and  service  of  this  noble  woman.  "  What  radiance 
of  womanly  sweetness  she  spread  around  her  by  her 
presence,  the  music  of  her  voice,  her  gracious  lovelir 
ness  ! "  exclaimed  Rev.  William  H.  Channing  concern- 
ing her ;  and  added,  "  How  raised  above  all  frivolous 
folly  she  seemed,  by  earnest  straightforwardness,  trans- 
parent sincerity,  and  commanding  conscience !  .  .  . 
Do  you  remember  that  Sunday  evening  in  the  gloaming, 
when  she  came  with  her  attendant  on  horseback  to  the 
Rowe  House  Hospital  on  the  plains,  and  at  our  request, 
standing  at  the  head  .of  the  stairs,  gang  hymn  after 
hymn  to  bur  poor  wounded  fellows  ?  They  said  it  was 
like  the  voices  of  angels.  Ay,  it  was  so.  She  stands 
for  us  now  at  the  head  of  the  golden  stairway  to  the 
heavens ;  and  the  voice  is  ever,  l  Nearer,  my  God,  to 
thee,  — nearer  to  thee.'  " 

This  chapter  will  not  afford  space  for  due  record  of 
similar  noble  service  on  the  part  of  the  many  other 
women  who  were  nurses  ;  but  CLARA  BARTON  must  not 
be  forgotten.  She  performed  the  same  work  for  the 
wounded  soldiers,  often  at  the  risk  of  her  life  ;  and  when 
the  war  was  over  she  organized  the  "  Bureau  of  Records 
of  Missing  Men  in  the  Armies  of  the  United  States," 
which  was  found  afterwards  to  be  an  enterprise  of  great 
value  to  the  Government,  as  well  as  to  the  friends  of  the 
soldiers.  She  induced  the  Government  to  lay  out  ceme- 
tery grounds  at  Andersonville,  placing  head-boards 
when  possible  to  identify  the  graves.  During  the 
French  and  Prussian  war  she  was  in  Europe,  assisting 
the  women  of  the  nobility  in  their  efforts  for  the 
wounded  soldiers,  and  doing  noble  service  for  humanity 
in  a  foreign  as  she  had  already  done  in  her  native  land. 


184  WOMEN   OP  THE   CENTURY. 

The  name  of  CLARA  BARTON  will  forever  shine  among 
the  women  who  won  a  deathless  fame  in  the  days  of 
war  that  called  for  loyal  and  philanthropic  effort.  She 
is  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  and  the  daughter  of  one 
who  served  his  country  as  a  soldier  in  the  West,  in  the 
early  days  of  the  Republic. 

The  mere  list  of  those  who  followed  in  the  same  path 
that  those  mentioned  made  glorious  would  extend  this 
chapter  to  an  unreasonable  length :  therefoi  e  the  reader 
must  be  referred  to  those  books  which  are  devoted 
wholly  to  the  record  of  these  noble  deeds,  and  to  such 
books  as  the  various  histories  of  the  civil  war,  to  biog- 
raphies such  as  those  of  "  CJhaplain  Fuller,"  Lieut. 
Derby,1  Ulric  Dahlgren,1  Major  Soule,2  and  the  like,  and 
to  the  histories  which  have  been  published  of  the  Civil* 
War. 

"  MOTHER  "  BICKERDTKE  of  the  West,  Mrs.  HARRIS, 
Mrs.  ELIZA  C.  PORTER,  MARGARET  ELIZABETH 
BRECKENRIDGE,  Mrs.  BARKER,  AMY  M.  BRADLEY, 
Mrs.  ARABELLA  GRIFFITH  BARLOW,  Mrs.  NELLIE 
MARIA  TAYLOR,  Mrs.  ADELINE  TYLER,  Mrs.  HOL- 
STEIN,  Mrs.  CORDELIA  A.  P.  HARVEY,  EMILY  E. 
PARSONS,  Mrs.  SARAH  R.  JOHNSTON,  ALMIRA  FALES, 
CORNELIA  HANCOCK,  Mrs.  MARY  MORRIS  HUSBAND, 
(granddaughter  of  Robert  Morris,  the  great  financier  of 
our  Revolutionary  war),  KATHERINE  P.  WORMELEY, 
the  Misses  WOOLSEY,  ANNA  MARIA  Ross,  Mary  J. 
Safford  (now  Dr.  M.  Safford  Blake),  Mrs.  LYDIA  G. 
PARRISH,  Mrs.  ANNIE  WITTENMEYER  (whose  tem- 
perance work  will  be  hereafter  mentioned),  Miss  MEL- 
CENIA  ELLIOTT,  MARY  DWIGHT  PETTES,  LOUISA 

i  The  Young  Captain;  and  Field,  Gunboat,  Hospital,  and  Prison 
Both  by  Phebe  A,  Hanaford. 
*  By  Rev.  A.  Caldwell. 


WOMEN  DURING   THE  CIVIL  WAR.  185 

MAERTZ,  Mrs.  HARRIET  R.  COLFAX,  CLARA  DAVIS 
(now  the  wife  of  Rev.  Edward  Abbott  of  Cambr  dgeport, 
Mass.),  Mrs.  R.  H.  SPENCER,  Mrs.  HARRIET  FOOTE 
HAWLEY,  ELLEN  E.  MITCHELL,  Miss  VANCE,  and  Miss 
BLACKMAR,  HATTIE  A.  DADA,  SUSAN  E.  HALL,  Mrs. 
SARAH  P.  EDSON,  MARIA  M .  C.  HALL,  Mrs.  ABBY 
HOPPER  GIBBONS  and  daughter  SARAH  H.  GIBBONS, 
Mrs.  E.  J.  RUSSELL,  Mrs.  MARY  W.  LEE,  CORNELIA 
M.  TOMPKINS,  Mrs.  ANNA  C.  MCMEENS,  Mrs.  JERUSHA 
R.  SMALL,  Mrs.  S.  A.  MARTHA  CANFIELD,  Mrs.  E. 
THOMAS  and  Miss  MORRIS,  Mrs.  SHEPARD  WELLS, 
Mrs.  E.  C.  WETHERELL,  PHEBE  ALLEN,  Mrs.  EDWIN 
GREBLE,  Mrs.  ISABELLA  FOGG,  Mrs.  E.  E.  GEORGE, 
Mrs.  CHARLOTTE  E.  McKAY,  Mrs.  FANNY  L. 
RICKETTS,  Mrs.  I.  S.  PHELPS,  Mrs.  JANE  R.  MUN- 
SELL,  —  all  these  ladies  are  mentioned  as  heroic  and 
efficient  women  nurses  in  "  Woman's  Work  in  the  Civil 
War ;  "  and  to  that  book  the  reader  must  be  commended 
for  further  knowledge  of  them.  Besides  those  whose 
names  have  been  published  in  books,  there  were  many 
more  teachers  who  spent  their  school-vacations  in  the 
hospital,  as  did  M.  JENNIE  MILES  of  Waltham,  Mass., 
and  others  ;  and  women  who,  like  Mrs.  LUCIE  F.  JOHN- 
SON and  sister  Mrs.  SARAH  SPEAR  of  New  Haven,  and 
MARY  E.  CAPEN  of  Boston,  and  others,  who  were  con- 
tent to  be  blessings  to  the  suffering  soldiers,  but  whose 
names  have  not  been  scattered  far  and  wide,  though 
•their  labors  are  appreciated.  Surely  the  women  of  this 
war-portion  of  our  century  are  women  of  whom  the 
nation  may  well  be  proud. 

Volumes  would  be  required  to  give  clue  credit  to 
such  women  as  ABBY  W.  MAY  of  Boston,  and  her  co- 
laborers,  Mrs.  MARY  A.  LIVERMORE,  then  of  Chicago 
(though  Boston  born),  and  Mrs.  A.  M.  HOGE,  and  their 


186  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

assistants,  who  organized  aid-societies,  and  solicited, 
received,  and  forwarded  supplies  to  the  hospital,  devot- 
ing most  or  the  whole  of  their  time  to  this  work.  Mrs. 
MAKY  A.  LIVERMORE  did  essential  service,  both  in 
hospitals,  in  aid-societies,  by  conducting  fairs,  and  by 
her  eloquent  voice  and  active  pen,  addressing  audiences 
in  such  a  way  as  to  gain  all  she  asked  for  the  soldiers, 
and  wielding,  through  the  paper  of  which  she  and  her 
patriotic  husband  were  editors,  an  influence  which  was 
wide  extended,  in  behalf  of  loyalty  and  freedom. 
"  During  the  whole  war,  even  in  the  busiest  times,  not 
a  week  was  passed  that  she  did  not  publish  somewhere 
two  or  three  columns  at  the  least.  Letters,  incidents, 
appeals,  editorial  correspondence,  —  always  something 
useful,  interesting, — head  and  hands  were  always  busy; 
and  the  small  implement,  '  mightier  than  the  sword,' 
was  never  allowed  to  rest  unused  in  the  inkstand. 
...  In  the  autumn  of  1863,  the  great  North-western 
Sanitary  Fair,  the  first  of  that  series  of  similar  fairs 
which  united  the  North  in  a  bond  of  large  and  wide- 
spread charity,  occurred.  It  was  Mrs.  Livermore  who 
suggested  and  planned  the  first  fair,  which  netted  almost 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  the  Sanitary  Commis- 
•sion.  Mrs.  Hoge  had  at  first  no  confidence  in  the  pro- 
ject ;  but  she  afterward  joined  it,  and,  giving  it  her 
earnest  aid,  helped  to  carry  it  to  a  successful  conclusion. 
It  was  indeed  a  giant  plan ;  and  it  may  be  chiefly  cred- 
ited, from  its  inception  to  its  fortunate  close,  to  these 
indefatigable  and  skilful  workers."1  The  biographical 
sketches  of  Mrs.  Hoge  and  Mrs.  Livermore  in  Dr. 
Brockett's  book  are  full  .of  interest.  A  brief  sketch  is 
there  also  of  Miss  May,  a  woman  of  rare  executive 
ability.  With  characteristic  modesty  she  once  wrote 

i  Woman's  Work  in  the  Civil  War. 


WOMEN   DUKING  THE   CIVIL  WAR.  187 

to  a  lady  who  asked  for  items  and  names  wherewith  to 
make  due  record  of  the  work  of  women  in  New  Eng- 
land, "  It  was  necessary  that  some  one  should  be  at  the 
head  of  the  work,  and  this  place  it  was  my  blessed 
privilege  to  fill.  But  it  was  only  an  accidental  promi- 
nence ;  and  I  should  regret  more  than  I  can  express  to 
you,  to  have  this  accident  of  position  single  me  out  in 
any  such  manner  as  you  propose  from  the  able,  devoted, 
glorious  women  "all  about  me,  whose  sacrifices  and 
faithfulness  and  nobleness  I  can  hardly  conceive  of, 
much  less  speak  of,  and  never  approach  to.  As  far  as 
I  am  personally  concerned,  I  would  rather  your  notice 
of  our  part  of  the  work  should  be  of  '  New  England 
women.'  We  shared  the  privileges  of  the  work  ;  not 
always  equally :  that  would  be  impossible ;  but  we 
stood  side  by  side  through  it  all,  as  New  England 
women ;  and,  if  we  are  to  be  remembered  hereafter,  it 
ought  to  be  under  that  same  good  old  title,  and  in  one 
goodly  company.  When  I  begin  to  think  of  individual 
cases,  I  grow  full  of  admiration,  and  wish  I  could  tell 
3rou  of  many  a  special  woman  ;  but  the  number  soon 
becomes  appalling,  —  your  book  would  be  overrun,  and 
all  or  most  of  those  who  would  have  been  omitted 
might  well  have  been  there  too." 

This  is  just  the  state  of  mind  in  which  the  brief 
record  of  woman's  work  in  the  war  has  been  penned  for 
this  chapter.  If  a  book  could  not  contain  them,  how 
much  less  can  one  chapter !  The  recording  angel,  thank 
Heaven  !  knows  them  all ;  and  their  "  labor  was  not  in 
vain  in  the  Lord."  Rev.  Dr.  T.  M.  Eddy,  in  his  intro- 
duction to  "  The  Boys  in  Blue,"  Mrs.  Hoge's  thrilling 
book,  wherein  she  gives  the  credit  so  largely  due  to  the 
"  rank  and  file  "  of  the  army  of  the  Union,  truly  declares, 
"  It  will  be  a  wonderful  story,  if  ever  some  one  shall 


188  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

write,  as  it  should  be  written,  '  Woman's  Deeds  in  the 
War,'  and  tell,  as  it  should  be  told,  the  story  of  her 
heroic  toil.  Enough  is  known,  enough  has  been  told, 
to  excite  the  world's  admiration,;  but  much  remains 
untold." 

When  the  war  was  over,  there  was  a  work  for  the 
women  of  this  century  to  do,  in  training  the  freedmen, 
and  especially  their  children ;  and  the  noble  women  who 
had  been  nurses,  and  many  who  had  not,  enlisted  in 
this  new  enterprise,  with  the  same  Christian  zeal  and 
self-sacrifice  that  they  had  shown  in  the  hospitals.  The 
niece  of  the  poet  Whittier  was  among  them,  wearing  a 
name  that  is  dear  to  all  lovers  of  freedom,  because  his 
lyrics  have  so  earnestly  plead  for  the  slave.  Anna 
Gardner  was  there,  the  teacher  of  colored  children^  on 
her  native  island  ofJsTantucket,  when  the  abolitionists 
were  ostracised.  She  taught'  one  of  the  first  normal 
.schools  ever  established  for  colored  girls,  and  doubtless 
did  grand  service  in  training  for  the^negroes  of  the 
South  teachers  of  their  own  race.  The  New  England 
Commission  employed  about  seventy  teachers,  twenty- 
two  in  Virginia;  and  most  of  these  were  women  who 
were  zealous  and  self-sacrificing,  and  wrought  an  untold 
amount  of  good  for  the  freedmen. 

The  American  Tract  Society  has  issued  a  little 
volume  as  a  deserved  tribute  to  one  Christian  woman,  — 
a  free  colored  woman,  whose  father  was  a  white  man,  — 
MARY  S.  PEAKE,  who  was  the  first  teacher  at  Fortress 
Monroe.  After  long  years  of  silent  and,  as  man}'"  felt, 
unrighteous  ignoring  of  the  question  of  slavery,  the 
American  Tract  Society  at  last  gave  the  meed  of  praise 
to  Christian  effort  without  regard  to  race  or  color. 
Among  the  ladies  distinguished  for  service  among  the 
freedmen,  is  Mrs.  FRANCES  D.  GAGE,  a  lady  of  Ohio 


WOMEN  DURING  THE  CIVIL,  WAR.  189 

birth,  but  of  New  England  parentage.  Early  the  wife 
of  a  lawyer  who  was  an  abolitionist,  she  shared  with 
him  his  hatred  of  oppression.  Her  family  of  eight 
children  necessarily  took  much  of  her  time :  yet  she  was 
able  to  use  her  graceful  pen,  and  dealt  powerful  blows 
for  freedom,  temperance,  and  other  reforms.  She  fought 
the  battle  of  an  abolitionist  anew  when  she  removed 
from  Ohio  to  St.  Louis.  She  has  lived  the  life  of  a 
philanthropist ;  and  when  the  war  broke  out  she  gave 
voice  and  pen  to  the  right,  editing,  speaking,  and  writ- 
ing ever  till  the  cry  of  the  freedmen  reached  her,  and 
she  found  herself  free  from  other  cares,  and  found  her 
mission  among  them.  Four  of  her  own  boys  were  in 
the  Union  army ;  and  in  the  autumn  of  1862  she  went 
without  appointment  or  salary  to  Port  Royal,  where 
and  at  other  places  near  she  labored  fourteen  months. 
She  returned  North  in  1863,  and  lectured  on  her  expe- 
riences among  the  freedmen,  rousing  others  to  labor 
also  for  their  welfare.  This  all  winter,  wearying  and 
unpaid  work  for  herself,  but  successful  as  far  as  the 
cause  was  concerned ;  and  then  in  summer  down  the 
Mississippi  as  the  unsalaried  agent  of  the  Western 
Sanitary  Commission.  Her  name  will  forever  stand 
among  the  noble,  faithful  women  of  the  first  century 
who  "  remembered  those  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them," 
who  cared  for  the  soldier  and  the  freedman,  and'  to 
whom  our  God  has  already  said,  "  Well  done  !  " 

Mrs.  LUCY  GAYLOKD  POWERS  was  another  true 
friend  of  the  soldier  and  the  freedman.  "Her  last 
active  benevolent  work  was  commenced  in  1863,  —  the 
foundation  of  an  asylum  at  the  capital  for  the  freed 
orphans  and  destitute  aged  colored  women  whom  the 
war  and  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  had  thrown 
upon  the  care  of  the  benevolent."  But  she  was  in 


190  WOMEN   OP  THE   CENTUBY. 

feeble  health  for  years,  and  died  on  the  bosom  of  the 
lordly  Hudson,  as  she  was  going  in  the  steamer  to 
Albany,  on  the  20th  of  July,  1863.  "  After  her  life 
of  usefulness,  her  name  at  last  stands  high  upon  the 
roll  of  martyr-women  whom  this  war  has  made."1 
MARIA  RULLANN  of  Massachusetts  proved  herself 
worthy  of  her  kinship  to  the  first  secretary  of  the  board 
of  education  in  that  Commonwealth,  who  finished  his 
noble  career  as  president  of  Antioch  College,  Ohio,  by 
her  faithful  service  as  a  teacher  and  philanthropic 
worker  in  Helena,  Ark.,  and  afterward  as  a  teacher  of 
colored  people  in  Washington  and  Georgetown.  SARAH 
J.  HAGAR  was  one  of  the  heroic  nurses,  and  served  by 
the  side  of  her  mother,  Mrs.  C.  C.  Hagar,  and  after- 
wards taught  among  the  freedrnen  at  Vicksburg,  where 
she  died,  giving  her  life  for  the  sacred  cause.  Mrs. 
JOSEPHINE  R.  GRIFFIN  was  a  heroine,  who  was  always 
an  advocate  for  freedom,  was  faithful  to  the  soldier 
boys  when  her  other  duties  in  Washington  allowed,  and 
finally  took  charge  of  the  good  work  for  freedmen  in 
that  vicinity.  One  of  the  philanthropic  methods  she 
pursued  in  their  behalf  was  the  finding  of  good  places 
for  domestic  service  for  them,  and  taking  a  company 
from  time  to  tune  to  various  Northern  and  Western 
cities.  "  The  cost  of  these  expeditions  she  provided 
almost  entirely  from  her  own  means ;  her  daughters,  who 
have  inherited  their  mother's  spirit,  helping  as  far  as 
possible  in  her  noble  work.  She  has  now  gone  to  her 
rest.  Further  mention  will  be  made  of  her  among  the 
reformers.  "  There  were  great  numbers  of  other  ladies 
equall}7  efficient  in  the  freedmen's  schools  and  homes  in 
the  Atlantic  States  ;  but  their  work  was  mainly  under 
the  direction  of  Freedmen's  Relief,  and  subsequently 

*  Woman's  Work  in  the  Civil  War. 


WOMEN  DURING  THE   CIVIL   WAB.  191 

of  the  American  Union  Commission ;  and  it  is  not  easy 
to  obtain  from  them  accounts  of  the  labors  of  particular 
individuals.  The  record  of  the  women  who  have 
labored  faithfully,  and  not  a  few  of  them  to  the  loss  of 
their  health  or  lives,  in  work  which  was  in  some  re- 
spects even  more  repulsive  to  the  natural  sensibilities 
than  that  in  the  hospitals,  if  smaller  in  numbers,  is  not 
less  honorable  than  that  of  their  sisters  in  the  hos- 
pitals." 1 

Reluctantly  the  theme  is  concluded ;  for  "  the  half 
has  not  been  told"  concerning  the  work  of  women 
during  the  war  for  the  soldiers,  and  during  and  since 
the  war  for  the  freed  men.  The  eeons  of  the  future 
alone  can  give  the  opportunity  for  a  full  history  of  their 
noble  work  and  their  blessed  influence.  It  is  a  tale  of 
self-sacrifice  and  of  heroism.  And  there  were  heroic 
women,  North  and  South ;  women  loyal  to  the  Union, 
who  sacrificed  and  toiled  for  the  "  dear  old  flag." 
Henry  C.  Watson  compiled  a  volume  in  1852,  called 
"  Heroic  Women  of  History."  Had  he  waited  a  decade, 
he  could  have  written  three  of  the  same  octavo  size, 
and  not  have  exhausted  the  theme.  He  declares  in  his 
preface,  "  An  heroic  woman  is  almost  an  object  of  wor- 
ship." Then  there  are  many  shrines  to-day  for  the 
devotees  of  physical  and  moral  heroism  ;  for  North  and 
South,  the  women  of  the  first  century  were  brave, 
patriotic,  and  heroic. 

The  women  of  Gettysburg  "  won  for  themselves  a 
high  and  honorable  record  for  their  faithfulness  to  the 
flag,  their  generosity  and  their  devotion  to  the  wounded. 
Chief  among  these,  since  she  gave  her  life  for  the  cause, 
we  must  reckon  Mrs.  JENNIE  WADE,  who  continued  her 
generous  work  of  baking  bread  for  the  Union  army,  till 

i  Woman's  Work  in  the  Civil  War.j 


192  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

a  rebel  shot  killed  her  instantly.  A  rebel  officer  oi 
high  rank  was  killed  almost  at  the  same  moment  near 
her  door ;  and  the  rebel  troops,  hastily  constructing  a 
rude  coffin,  were  about  to  place  the  body  of  their  com- 
mander in  it  for  burial,  when,  in  the  swaying  to  and  fro 
of  the  armies,  a  Union  column  drove  them  from  the 
ground,  and,  finding  Mrs.  Wade  dead,  placed  her  in  the 
coffin  intended  for  the  rebel  officer.  In  that  coffin  she 
was  buried  the  next  day,  amidst  the  tears  of  hundreds 
who  knew  her  courage  and  kindness  of  heart.  .  .  .  Miss 
CARRIE  SHEADS,  the  principal  of  Oak  Ridge  Female 
Seminary,  is  also  deserving  of  a  place  in  our  record,  for 
her  courage,  humanity,  and  true  womanly  tact.  .  .  . 
Another  young  lady  of  Gettysburg,  Miss  AMELIA  HAR- 
MON, a  pupil  of  Miss  Sheads,  displayed  a  rare  heroism 
under  circumstances  of  trial."  l 

The  bravery  and  patriotism  of  BARBARA  FRIETCHIE 
has  been  fitly  told  by  Whittier ;  and  the  heroism  of  Mrs. 
HETTY  M.  McEwEN,  who  would  not  permit  the  rebels  to 
tear  down  the  dear  old  flag  that  waved  above  her  dying 
son,  has  been  finely  told  by  Mrs.  Lucy  H.  Hooper. 

"  The  loyal  women  of  Richmond  were  a  noble  band. 
Amid  obloquy,  persecution,  and  in  some  cases  impris- 
onment (one  of  them  was  imprisoned  for  nine  months 
for  aiding  Union  prisoners),  they  never  faltered  in  their 
allegiance  to  the  old  flag,  nor  in  their  sympathy  and 
services  to  the  Union  prisoners  at  Libby  and  Belle  Isle 
and  Castle  Thunder.  With  the  aid  of  twenty-one  loyal 
white  men  in  Richmond,  they  raised  a  fund  of  thirteen 
thousand  dollars  in  gold,  to  aid  Union  prisoners,  while 
their  gifts  of  clothing,  food,  and  luxuries,  were  of  much 
greater  value.  Some  of  these  ladies  were  treated  with 
great  cruelty  by  the  rebels,  and  finally  driven  from  the 

i  Woman's  Work  in  the  Civil  War. 


WOMEN  DURING  THE  CIVIL   WAK.  193 

city ;  but  no  one  of  them  ever  proved  false  to  loyalty. 
In  Charleston,  too,  hotbed  of  the  Rebellion  as  it  was, 
there  was  a  Union  league,  of  which  the  larger  propor- 
tion were  women,  some  of  them  wives  or  daughters  of 
prominent  rebels,  who  dared  every  thing,  even  their  life, 
their  liberty,  and  their  social  position,  to  render  aid  and 
comfort  to  the  Union  soldiers,  and  to  facilitate  the 
return  of  a  government  of  liberty  and  law.  Had  we 
space,  we  might  fill  many  pages  with  the  heroic  deeds 
of  these  noble  women." 1 

Abruptly  the  chapter  must  close,  for  it  is  simply  im- 
possible to  do  justice  to  all  the  noble  Union  women. 
God  knows  them  all,  and  will  one  day  say  to  each,  "  In- 
asmuch as  ye  did  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  ye  did  it  unto  me." 

1  Woman's  Work  in  the  Civil  War. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


LITERARY  WOMEN. 

Hannah  Adams  —  Catherine  M.  Sedgwick  ~  Catherine  E.  Beecher  — 
Sarah  J.  Hale  —  Margaret  Fuller  D'Ossoli  —  Adeline  D.  T.  Whit- 
ney —  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  —  Frances  Dana  Gage  —  Julia  Ward 
Howe  —  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps  —  Louisa  M.  Alcott,  &c. 

"No  good  of  worth  sublime  will  Heaven  permit 

To  light  on  man,  as  from  the  passing  air: 
The  lamp  of  genius,  though  by  Nature  lit, 

If  not  protected,  pruned,  and  fed  with  care, 

Soon  dies,  or  runs  to  waste  with  fitful  glare; 
And  learning  is  a  plant  that  spreads  and  towers 

Slow  as  Columbia's  aloe." 


CARLOS  WILCOX. 


What  thou  seest,  write  in  a  book."  —  REV.  i.  2. 


E  eloquent  Bethune  expressed  the  truth  in  regard 
-J-  to  woman's  worth  in  the  field  of  modern  literature, 
where  she  has  certainly  won  a  place  both  large  and 
high,  when  he  said,  "  What  the  elevation  of  woman  has 
done  for  the  reform  of  social  manners,  her  educated 
mind  is  doing  for  our  books." 

America  has  furnished  her  full  share  of  women  useful 

194 


LITER ABY  WOMEN.  195 

and  notable  with  the  pen ;  and  it  is  among  the  elements 
of  her  centennial  glory,  that  her  list  of  those  who  have 
written  wisely  and  with  an  attractive  pen  is  long  and 
bright.  But  again  the  brevity  which  is  needful  forbids 
all  the  praise  which  is  due.  A  portion  only  of  the  stars 
in  the  galaxy  of  women  who  love  literature,  and  have 
been  successful  in  the  paths  of  literary  endeavor,  can 
be  mentioned  here. 

ABIGAIL  ADAMS  won  the  laurels  which  no  other 
president's  wife  ever  won,  when  she  wrote  her  "  Let- 
ters," albeit  she  did  not  write  them  for  publication ;  yet, 
being  published  in  after-years,  they  showed  her  worthy 
of  a  place  among  the  "  women  of  letters  "  in  our  land. 

HANNAH  ADAMS,  the  daughter  of  a  farmer  in  Med- 
field,  Mass.,  was  born  in  1755 ;  but  she  wrote  for  many 
years  after  this  century  commenced,  and  belongs  among 
its  literary  women,  as  one  who  has  helped  others  who 
have  since  arisen  to  fame.  She  left  off  the  making  of 
lace  for  a  living,  in  order  to  prepare  young  men  for  col- 
lege ;  and  her  fame  as  a  teacher  was  great.  Yet  she  is 
more  known  by  her  books,  "  The  View  of  Religion " 
(a  history  of  different  sects),  "  The  History  of  New 
England,"  "  The  Evidences  of  the  Christian  Religion," 
and  a  "  History  of  the  Jews,"  which  latter  is  now  con- 
sidered the  most  valuable  of  her  productions.  She  was 
a  childlike  and  eccentric  person.  Mrs.  Child,  in  her 
"  Letters  from  New  York,"  devotes  a  chapter  to  anec- 
dotes concerning  her.  Absent-minded  but  kind-hearted, 
with  literary  ability  but  no  business  capacity,  she  would 
have  suffered  in  her  old  age  but  for  three  wealthy 
gentlemen  of  Boston,  who  settled  an  annuity  upon  her. 
She  died  in  1832,  aged  seventy-six,  and  was  the  first 
person  buried  in  Mount  Auburn.  "She  was  warmly 
cherished  and  esteemed  for  the  singular  excellence, 


196  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUEY. 

purity,  and  simplicity  of  her  character.  .  .  .  Through 
life,  the  gentleness  of  her  manners,  and  the  sweetness 
of  her  temper,  were  childlike.  She  trusted  all  her  cares 
to  the  control  of  her  heavenly  Father ;  and  she  did  not 
trust  in  vain." 1 

Mrs.  Sigourney,  and  other  American  women  who  have 
won  distinction  with  the  pen,  but  who  have  written 
more  verse  than  prose,  or  are  better  known  as  poets, 
•will  be  mentioned  in  another  chapter.  A  writer  in  the 
" North  American  Review"  2  declares,  that  "it  is  a  for- 
tunate thing  for  any  country,  that  a  portion  of  its  litera- 
ture should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  female  sex ;  because 
their  influence  in  every  walk  of  letters  is  almost  sure 
to  be  powerful  and  good."  Such  has  surely  been  the 
influence  of  our  American  women,  who  have  written 
books  the  world  will  not  soon  stop  reading. 

CATHERINE  M.  SEDGWICK  was  one  of  these.  She 
was  born  hi  Stockbridge,  Mass.;  and  her  first  book 
appeared  hi  1822.  It  was  called  "  The  New  England 
Tale,"  and  was  received  so  favorably  that  in  1827  she 
published  a  novel  in  two  volumes,  called  "  Redwood." 
This  was  republished  in  England,  and  translated  into 
French  and  Italian.  She  then  produced  her  most  popu- 
lar tale,  "  Hope  Leslie ;  or,  Early  Times  in  America." 
Then  came  "  Clarence,"  "  Le  Bijou,"  and  "  The  Lin- 
woods  ;  or,  Sixty  Years  since  in  America."  Several 
volumes  for  the  young,  and  a  collection  of  her  tales,  then 
met  the  public  eye ;  and  in  1840  she  published  "  Letters 
from  Abroad  to  Kindred  at  Home,"  and  shortly  after  a 
"  Life  of  Lucretia  M.  Davidson."  Miss  Sedgwick  was 
a  frequent  contributor  to  the  periodicals  of  her  day;  and 
her  fugitive  sketches  were  afterward  collected  to  enhance 

1  "Woman's  Record,  by  Mrs.  Hale. 

2  Vol.  xxvi.  p.  403. 


LITERARY   WOMEN.  197 

the  value  of  a  new  edition  of  her  works.  A  writer  in 
the  "National  Portrait  Gallery,"  with  many  other  words 
of  commendation,  sa}~s,  "  Her  style  is  peculiarly  good : 
equally  free  from  stiffness  and  negligence,  it  is  more 
distinguished  by  delicacy  and  grace  than  strength  ;  and 
the  purity  of  her  English  may  afford  a  model  to  some 
of  our  learned  scholars."  She  lived  a  useful  life  in 
philanthropic  as  well  as  literary  ways,  until  1867,  when 
sh?  passed  away.  MARY  E.  DEWEY  has  written  hei 
biography  in  a  charming  manner.  Mrs.  Kemble  writes, 
"  Her  memory  now  remains  to  me,  as  that  of  one  of  the 
most  charming,  most  amiable,  and  most  excellent  persons 
I  have  ever  known."  The  world  is  blessed,  when  such 
a  woman  uses  the  pen. 

MARGARET  FULLER  D'OssoLi  was,  many  think,  the 
grandest  woman  of  the  nineteenth  century.  She  was 
certainly  one  of  the  most  cultured  which  America  ever 
sent  to  the  Old  World,  at  the  time  she  went,  —  in  1846. 
Born  23d  of  May,  1810,  in  Massachusetts,  of  educated 
and  refined  parentage,  she  gave  herself  to  study  with  a 
thoroughness  and  enthusiasm  seldom  if  ever  equalled. 
"  Few  eminent  scholars,  struggling  in  youth  for  univer- 
sity honors,  and  preparing  for  a  career  of  exclusive 
literary  labor,  have  made  such  attainments,  in  the  same 
period  of  life,  in  philosophy  and  various  learning,  as 
Margaret  Fuller  accomplished  long  before  she  was 
twenty." l  Reverses  of  fortune,  following  her  father's 
death,  led  her  to  become  the  teacher  of  the  youngei 
members  of  the  family,  and  finally  to  teach  others. 

She  taught  Latin  and  French  in  the  school  which  A. 
Bronson  Alcott  had  established  in  Boston,  and  assisted 
private  pupils  also  in  the  study  of  various  languages. 
An  evening  of  each  week  in  this  busy  period  was  given 

1  Portrait  Gallery  of  Eminent  Men  and  Women. 


198  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

to  reading  German  authors  to  Dr.  Channing.  She  soon 
after  became  principal  of  a  school  in  Providence,  R.I. 
In  1839  she  opened  classes  for  conversation  in  Boston, 
which  were  largely  attended  and  became  widely  famous. 
There  was  more  of  excellent  lecturing  on  her  part  than 
of  conversation  on  the  part  of  her  class.  "  Greek 
Mythology"  was  one  of  the  principal  themes.  Five 
winter  seasons  these  oral  lectures  continued;  the  fine 
arts,  ethics,  education,  with  kindred  topics,  supplying 
the  themes.  Margaret's  pen  was  busy  also.  She  trans- 
lated from  the  German  several  works ;  and  in  1840  she 
was  engaged  in  furnishing  articles  for  "  The  Dial,  a  Mag- 
azine for  Literature,  Philosophy,  and  Religion,"  which 
was  continued  quarterly  till  1844.  The  first  two  vol- 
umes she  edited.  "Several  of  her  best  articles  were 
written  for  it ;  among  which  may  be  particularly  men- 
tioned a  judicious  appreciation  of  Goethe,  full  of  insight 
and  sagacity,  in  the  fifth  number;  and  a  finely  conceived 
discussion  of  what  is  called  the  woman  question,  in  a 
paper  entitled  '  The  Great  Lawsuit,'  in  the  fourth  vol- 
ume, which  was  subsequently  developed  into  a  volume 
bearing  the  title,  '  Woman  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,' 
a  highly  poetical  as  well  as  practical  treatment  of  the 
subject  in  many  of  its  aspects,  with  illustrations  drawn 
from  the  heroism  and  literature  of  all  lands."  l  In  the 
autumn  of  1844  Miss  Fuller  accepted  an  offer  to  write 
for  "  The  New  York  Tribune,"  and  removed  to  the  resi- 
dence of  Horace  Greeley.  Twenty-five  years  afterward 
the  talented  wife  of  Mr.  Greeley  bore  ample  testimony 
(in  conversation  with  the  author  of  this  volume)  to  her 
genius  as  a  writer,  and  her  attractions  as  a  woman.  She 
lived  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  knew  her,  though  they 
may  not  always  have  been  her  equals  intellectually ; 

1  Portrait  Gallery,  &c. 


LITERARY   WOMEN.  199 

and  those  who  did  come  near  to  her  in  sympathy  for 
reforms  or  culture  always  held  her  in  highest  esteem. 
Of  her  sojourn  in  foreign  lands ;  her  marriage  tiere ;  hel 
labors  in  Italian  hospitals ;  the  birth  of  her  only  child, 
whose  remains  rest  in  Mount  Auburn ;  her  sad  shipwreck 
on  Fire  Island  beach  on  the  16th  of  July,  1850,  —  one 
may  read  in  the  admirable  memoir  prepared  by  three  of 
her  friends,  —  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  James  Freeman 
Clarke,  and  William  H.  Channing.  Her  memoir  in  two 
volumes,  and  her  works  in  four,  form  a  valuable  set  of 
books  for  any  library,  and  are  a  better  monument  to  her 
worth  and  genius  than  any  granite  shaft  or  marble 
statue  could  be.  Her  name  lives  in  the  history  of 
American  literature,  an  inspiration  to  the  student,  a 
strength  to  the  reformer,  one  of  the  noble  women  of 
whom  America  may  well  be  proud. 

EMILY  CHTJBBTJCK  JUDSON,  well  known  by  her  nom 
de  plume  of  Fanny  Forrester,  was  a  literary  woman  who 
struggled  upward  through  circumstances  of  poverty 
and  discouragement  to  a  high  place  among  the  writers 
of  our  land.  She  was  born  in  Eaton,  Madison  County, 
N.Y.,  Aug.  22,  1817.  When  only  eleven  she  worked  in 
a  woollen  factory,  going  to  the  district  school  when  the 
mill  was  closed  in  winter.  She  engaged  in  mantua-mak- 
ing,  while  she  studied  at  other  hours ;  helped  to  take 
charge  of  the  house  with  the  boarders,  by  which  the 
family  gained  a  livelihood  ;  rose  at  two  o'clock  to  wash 
before  school-time  some  days,  and  sat  up  till  two  o'clock 
studying  on  other  occasions.  Finally,  when  only  fifteen, 
she  obtained  a  situation  as  teacher,  and  thenceforward 
she  taught  and  wrote,  till  her  name  became  familiar  to 
the  patrons  of  the  Utica  Female  Seminary  as  a  teacher, 
and  to  the  readers  of  "  The  New  Mirror  "  as  a  writer  of 
sprightly  prose  or  touching  verse.  Her  first  book  was 


200  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTUKY. 

"  Charles  Linn,"  for  which  she  only  received  fifty-one 
dollars,  the  proceeds  of  an  edition  of  fifteen  hundred. 
Other  juvenile  works  were  issued  by  the  Baptist  Sun- 
day School  Publishing  House  ;  and  with  the  proceeds, 
and  out  of  her  small  salary  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  and  board,  she  saved  enough  in  four  years  to 
buy  a  house  and  garden  for  her  parents  at  Hamilton, 
thus  gratifying  the  filial  instincts  of  her  noble  nature. 
Her  magazine  stories  were  published  in  book-form,  with 
the  title  of  "  Alderbrook,"  the  book  by  which  she  was 
mostly  known  until,  in  1846,  she  became  the  wife  of  the 
eminent  missionary,  Adoniram  Judson.  She  then  pre- 
pared the  "  Memoir  of  Sarah  Boardman  Judson,"  and 
for  a  season  labored  in  a  foreign  land,  learning  the  Bur- 
mese language.  In  1847  her  daughter  was  born,  and 
her  poem,  "  Our  Bird,"  came  into  its  pleasant  form. 

"  There's  not  in  Ind  a  lovlier  bird, 

Broad  earth  owns  not  a  happier  nest. 
0  God  !  thou  hast  a  fountain  stirred, 
Whose  waters  nevermore  shall  rest." 

The  illness  of  Dr.  Judson  led  to  his  trying  a  sea-voy- 
age ;  but  he  had  to  leave  her  in  that  far-off  land,  to  give 
birth  to  a  son  who  did  not  survive,  and  was  himself 
buried  in  the  deep.  Her  health  imperatively  required 
return  to  her  native  land,  and  in  October,  1851  she  arrived 
in  Boston.  "  Her  few  remaining  years  were  largely  occu- 
pied in  devotion  to  the  memory  of  her  husband.  She 
rendered  important  assistance  to  Dr.  Wayland  in  the 
preparation  of  the  memoirs.  A  collection  of  her  poems 
entitled  '  The  Olio  '  appeared  in  1852.  She  also  wrote 
other  occasional  poems  ;  a  book  entitled  '  The  Kathayan 
Slave,'  and  her  thoughts  reverting  to  the  past,  a  touching 
memorial  of  her  deceased  sisters,  with  the  simple  title. 


LITERARY  WOMEN.  201 

'  My  Two  Sisters.'  Calmly  meeting  the  end  which  she 
had  long  foreseen,  she  died  with  Christian  hope  and  res- 
ignation, at  her  home  in  Hamilton,  N.Y.,  June  1,1854."1 

HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE  is  a  name  that  will  live 
as  long  as  there  are  lovers  of  freedom  and  haters  of  slavery 
in  our  broad  land  or  the  world.  She  is  the  third  daugh- 
ter and  sixth  child  of  Rev.  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  and 
Roxanna  Foote,  and  was  born  in  Litchfield,  Conn.,  14th 
oZ  June,  1812.  Her  mother  died  when  she  was  but 
four  years  old.  Two  years  more,  and  her  father  brought 
a  gentle  step-mother,  whose  influence  was  excellent 
upon  the  future  writer.  Harriet  was  sent  to  a  famous 
academy  in  her  native  place  at  the  age  of  seven,  and 
continued  there  till  twelve.  She  was  a  diligent  reader, 
even  at  that  early  age,  and  the  novels  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott  were  among  her  favorite  books.  She  profited 
greatly  by  the  instruction  given  in  the  art  of  compo- 
sition, and  in  her  twelfth  year  was  appointed  one  of  the 
writers  for  the  annual  exhibition.  "  The  question  pro- 
posed was,  '  Can  the  immortality  of  the  soul  be  proved 
by  the  light  of  nature  ? '  in  which  she  took  the  nega- 
tive. 'I  remember,'  says  she,  'the  scene,  to  me  so 
eventful.  The  hall  was  crowded  with  all  the  literati  of 
Litchfield.  Before  them  all  our  compositions  were  read 
aloud.  When  mine  was  read,  I  noticed  that  father,  who 
was  sitting  on  the  right  of  Mr.  Brace,  brightened,  and 
looked  interested;  and  at  the  close  I  heard  him  say, 
"  Who  wrote  that  composition  ?  "  —  "  Your  daughter, 
sir,"  was  the  answer.  It  was  the  proudest  moment  of 
my  life.  There  was  no  mistaking  father's  face  when  he 
was  pleased ;  and  to  have  interested  1dm  was  past  all 
juvenile  triumphs.' " 

She   married   Rev.  Dr.  C.   E.   Stowe  in  1836,  and 

i  Eminent  Portraits,  &c. 


202  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTUBY. 

resided  for  some  time  in  Cincinnati,  where  he  was  a 
professor  in  the  Lane  Theological  Seminary.  Here  she 
felt  the  pressure  of  poverty;  and  the  struggle  to  care  for 
a  growing  family  with  limited  means  led  to  the  use  of 
her  pen.  She  wrote  stories  for  periodicals  and  Sunday- 
school  books.  In  1851  she  wrote  for  "  The  National 
Era  "  the  story  of  Uncle  Tom.  "  It  was  shortly  after 
published  in  Boston,  with  the  title,  '  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin ;  or,  Life  among  the  Lowly.'  Its  success  was 
immediate  and  extraordinary.  .  .  .  Within  a  few  months 
of  its  publication,  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  copies 
of  the  work  were  sold  in  the  United  States,  and  its  success 
abroad  was  quite  as  remarkable.  The  first  London 
edition,  published  in  May,  1852,  was  not  large,  .  .  .  but 
in  the  following  September  the  London  publishers  fur- 
nished to  one  house  ten  thousand  copies  per  day  for 
about  four  weeks,  and  had  to  employ  one  thousand  per- 
sons in  preparing  copies  to  supply  the  general  demand. 
By  the  end  of  the  year,  a  million  of  copies  had  been 
sold  in  England.  It  was  at  once  translated  into  most 
of  the  languages  of  Europe.  Mr.  Allibone,  in  his 
'  Dictionary  of  Authors,'  enumerates  nearly  forty  trans- 
lations in  seventeen  different  foreign  tongues.  ...  In 
addition  to  this,  it  was  dramatized  in  twenty  different 
forms,  and  acted  in  the  leading  cities  of  Europe  and 
America.  The  sale  of  the  work  in  the  United  States, 
including  the  German  version,  has  reached,  it  has  been 
calculated,  half  a  million  of  copies.  In  England,  in  the 
absence  of  copyright,  it  had  the  advantage  of  being  re- 
produced in  some  twenty  editions,  ranging  in  price  from 
ten  shillings  to  sixpence  a  copy.  A  popular  edition  of 
large  circulation  was  illustrated  by  George  Cruikshank. 
As  a  vindication  of  the  essential  truthfulness  of  the 
pictures  of  slave-life  in  her  book,  Mrs.  Stowe  subse- 


LITEKARY   WOMEN.  203 

quently  published  a  volume  entitled  A  Key  to  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin,'  a  collection  of  facts  on  ^he  subject,  drawn 
from  Southern  authorities."1 

"  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "  was  Mrs.  Stowe's  chef-d'oeuvre, 
but  she  has  since  written  other  works  of  great  interest. 
Her  "  Sunny  Memories  of  Foreign  Lands  "  is  an  attract- 
ive sketch  of  what  she  saw  and  enjoyed  in  Europe  in 
1853.  Another  anti-slavery  novel,  "  Dred,  a  Tale  of  the 
Great  Dismal  Swamp,"  met  with  a  sale  of  three  hundred 
thousand  copies  in  England  and  America.  Mrs.  Stowe 
has  written  many  graphic  sketches  of  New  England  life 
in  earlier  periods,  which  are  extremely  popular ;  among 
which  "  The  Minister's  Wooing,"  "  The  Pearl  of  Orr's 
Island,"  and  "  Oldtown  Folks,"  are  chief  in  size  and 
interest.  She  also  wrote  for  "  The  Atlantic  Monthly  " 
and  "  The  Cornhill  Magazine,"  to  be  published  simul- 
taneously, an  Italian  romance,  "  Agnes  of  Sorrento." 
A  volume  appearing  in  1869,  concerning  Lord  and  Lady 
Byron,  awoke  much  controversy.  Since  then  she  has 
written  only  moral  tales  and  stories  for  the  young,  among 
them  "  Palmetto  Sketches,"  descriptive  of  Florida, 
where  she  resides  each  winter.  Mrs.  Stowe  rightly 
holds  a  very  high  place  among  the  literary  women  of 
our  first  century ;  and  her  writings  had  undoubtedly  a 
wide  and  marked  influence,  inducing  those  political 
changes  and  military  events  which  preceded  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  slave  in  this  country. 

SABAII  JANE  LIPPIXCOTT  nee  Clarke,  widely  known 
as  Grace  Greenwood,  born  in  Onondaga,  N.Y.,  is  of  Pil- 
grim stock.  She  commenced  her  career  as  an  authoress 
by  writing  letters  to  the  editors  of  "  The  New  Mirror," 
and  using  the  alliterative  nom  de  plume  of  "Grace 
Greenwood."  The  brilliant  letter-writer,  who  wrote 

i  Eminent  Portraits 


204  WOMEN   OF   THE  CENTURY. 

also  earnest,  impassioned  poetry,  became  at  once  a  favor 
ite,  and  such  she  has  continued  to  be.  A  volume  of 
her  prose  writings,  called  "  Greenwood  Leaves,"  was 
published  in  1850,  and  a  volume  of  "  Poems  "  in  1851, 
followed  by  a  book  for  children  called  "  My  Pets."  She 
has  also  published  a  book  called  "  Haps  and  Mishaps  of 
a  Tour  in  Europe."  In  later  years  she  has  been  suc- 
cessfully active  as  a  lecturer  and  reader,  and  is  now  in 
Europe,  writing  readable  letters  to  "The  New  York 
Times,"  which  are  eagerly  perused  all  over  the  land. 
She  is  verifying  her  own  words,  — 

"  Oh,  no!  I  never  will  grow  old, 

Though  years  on  years  roll  by, 
And  silver  o'er  my  dark  brown  hair, 
And  dim  my  laughing  eye. 

They  shall  not  shrivel  up  my  soul, 

Nor  dim.  the  glance  of  love 
My  heart  casts  on  this  world  of  ours, 

And  lifts  to  that  above." 

ELIZABETH  F.  ELLET,  has  used  her  pen  nobly  and 
successfully.  She  was  born  on  the  shore  of  Lake 
Ontario,  the  daughter  of  Dr.  William  A.  Lummus,  and 
grand-daughter  of  Gen.  Maxwell,  a  Revolutionary  offi- 
cer. No  wonder  that  in  after  years  she  wrote  three 
excellent  volumes  telling  of  "  The  Women  of  the  Revo- 
lution." She  wrote  also  the  book  called  "  Queens  of 
American  Society,"  and  a  volume  concerning  "  Women 
Artists  "  of  all  nations.  From  these  three  books  have 
been  gleaned  many  of  the  facts  and  incidents  which 
adorn  these  pages.  She  wrote  poetry  as  well  as  prose; 
and  a  volume  of  her  poems,  original  and  translations, 
was  published  in  1835.  She  contributed  largely  to 
various  periodicals,  including  "  The  North  American 
Review,"  for  which  women  did  not  usually  write.  In 


LITERARY  WOMEN.  205 

1850  she  published  the  "  Domestic  History  of  the 
American  Revolution,"  designed  to  exhibit  the  spirit  of 
that  period,  to  portray,  as  far  as  possible  the  social  and 
domestic  condition  of  the  colonists,  and  the  state  of 
feeling  among  the  people  during  the 'war.  Though 
dealing  with  the  same  great  events  which  developed 
the  peculiar  characteristics  of  the  "  Women  of  the  Re- 
vlutiou,"  this  last  work  is  not  a  continuation,  but  a 
novel  and  interesting  view  of  that  tremendous  struggle, 
which  resulted  in  gaining  for  America  a  place  among 
nations."  She  has  also  written  "Pictures  from  Bible 
History ;  "  and  it  is  hoped  has  not  yet  laid  aside  her 
facile  pen,  which  has  been  used  in  producing  nearly  all 
varieties  of  literature. 

EMMA  C.  EMBURY,  nee  Manley,  was  born  in  New 
York  City,  and  began  to  write  when  very  young ;  her 
first  articles  appearing  in  the  periodicals  of  the  day 
under  the  name  of  "  lanthe."  Her  first  volume  was 
published  about  the  year  1828,  "  Guido,  and  other 
Poems ;  "  but  the  works  which  have  gained  her  most 
celebrity  are  those  written  to  assist  in  the  education  of 
the  young,  especially  of  girls,—"  Constance  Latimer,  the 
Blind  Girl,"  "  The  Waldorf  Family,"  "  Nature's  Gems, 
or  American  Wild  Flowers,"  and  "  Glimpses  of  Home 
Life."  Besides  these  books,  she  has  written  many  tales 
and  poems  for  the  magazines,  but  more  prose  than  verse. 

HARRIET  FARLEY,  well  and  widely  known  as  the 
editor  of  "  The  Lowell  Offering,"  the  magazine  of  the 
factory  girls  of  Lowell,  is  now  Mrs  Doulevy.  Her 
father  was  a  Congregational  clergyman  of  Claremont, 
N.H.,  with  a  family  of  ten  children;  and  she  was 
therefore  early  called  to  assist  in  her  own  maintenance, 
and  soon  (by  entering  the  cotton-mill,  where  the  la- 
borers were  almost  wholly  American  girls  of  good 


206  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

families  in  those  early  days)  was  enabled  to  assist  in 
the  liberal  education  of  a  brother.  Largely  through 
the  influence  of  Rev.  Abel  C.  Thomas  of  Lowell,  the 
factory  girls  were  induced  to  use  the  pen  as  well  as 
tend  the  loom ;  and  the  magazine  was  started  which  has 
since  gamed  world-wide  celebrity,  though  it  did  not 
endure.  Miss  Farley  became  the  proprietor,  and  wrote 
as  follows:  "  I  do  all  the  publishing,  editing,  canvassing ; 
and,  as  it  is  bound  in  my  office,  I  can,  in  a  hurry,  help 
fold,  cut  covers,  stitch,  &c.  I  have  a  little  girl  to  assist 
me  in  the  folding,  stitching,  &c.;  the  rest,  after  it 
comes  from  the  printer's  hand,  is  all  my  own  work.  I 
employ  no  agents,  and  depend  upon  no  one  for  assist- 
ance. My  edition  is  four  thousand."  A  sketch  of  the 
life  and  labors  of  this  remarkable  toiler  is  given  in 
Mrs.  Hale's  book  ; l  and  from  it  we  learn  that  English 
critics  acknowledged  the  merit  of  the  work,  as  selec- 
tions from  the  "  Offering  "  were  published  in  London 
in  1849,  entitled  "  Mind  among  the  Spindles."  "  The 
Lowell  Offering  "  was  first  issued  in  1841,  and  in  1843 
Miss  HARRIET  F.  CURTIS,  was  associate  editor.  Both 
were  literary  women,  of  whom  America  as  well  as 
Lowell  had  reason  to  be  proud ;  for  they  showed  the 
power  of  that  genius  which  could  not  be  repressed  by 
the  conditions  of  a  laborious  life  with  the  hands  as 
well  as  brain. 

ELIZA  LEE  FOLLEN  was  a  miscellaneous  writer, 
whose  maiden  name  was  Cabot,  and  who  was  born  in 
Boston,  and  in  1828  married  a  German,  Professor  of 
German  in  Harvard  College.  Her  principal  works  are, 
"  Sketches  of  Married  Life,"  "  The  Skeptic,"  and  a 
"Life  of  Charles  Follen,"  and  several  books  for  the 
young.  "  She  has  also  edited  the  works  of  her  late 

i  Mrs.  Hale's  "  "Woman's  Record." 


LITERARY  WOMEN.  207 

husband,  in  four  volumes,  besides  contributing  to  va- 
rious literary  periodicals,  and  has  written  a  volume  of 
poems,  which  appeared  in  1839." l 

CAROLINE  OILMAN,  born  in  Boston,  on  the  spot 
where  the  Mariner's  Church  now  stands,  was  the 
daughter  of  Samuel  Howard,  who  died  before  she  was 
three  years  old.  An  interesting  autobiographical 
sketch  of  this  lady,  who  still  lives  on  earth,  may  be 
found  in  Mrs.  Hale's  "  Record  of  Distinguished 
Women."  She  says,  "  '  At  sixteen  I  wrote  "  Jephthah's 
Rash  Vow,"  and  was  gratified  by  the  request  of  an 
introduction  from  Miss  Hannah  Adams,  the  erudite, 
the  simple-minded,  and  gentle-mannered  author  of 
"The  History  of  Religions."  The  next  effusion  of 
mine  was  "  Jairus's  Daughter,"  which  I  inserted  by 
request  in  "  The  North  American  Review,"  then  a 
miscellany.  ...  In  1832  I  commenced  editing  "  The 
Rose-Bud,"  a  hebdomadal,  the  first  juvenile  neiospaper^ 
if  I  mistake  not,  in  the  Union.  From  this  periodical 
I  have  reprinted  at  various  times  the  following  vol- 
umes, "  Recollections  of  a  New  England  House- 
keeper," "  Recollections  of  a  Southern  Matron,"  "Ruth 
Raymond,  or  Love's  Progress,"  "  Poetry  of  Travelling 
in  the  United  States,"  "  Tales  and  Ballads,"  "  Verses 
of  a  Life  Time,"  "Letters  of  Eliza  Wilkinson  during 
the  Invasion  of  Charleston."  Also  several  volumes  for 
youth,  now  collected  in  one,  and  recently  published  as 
"  Mrs.  Oilman's  Gift-Book."  '"  .  .  .  "  The  character  of 
Mrs.  Oilman's  writings,"  says  Mrs.  Hale,  "  both  prose 
and  poetry,  is  that  of  a  healthy  imagination,  and  cheer- 
ful mind,  just  what  her  reminiscences  would  lead  us  to 
expect." 

SARAH  JOSEPHA  HALE,  has  given  to  the  world  one 

1  Mrs.  Hale's  Woman's  Record. 


208  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

book  which  manifests  great  industry  on  her  part ;  and 
which  calls  for  gratitude  on  the  part  of  many  readers 
who  find  it  multum  in  parvo,  the  book  "  Woman's 
Record,"  a  large  octavo  of  918  pages,  being  "  Bio- 
graphical Sketches  of  Distinguished  Women,"  in  all 
ages  and  nations  :  a  fine  encyclopaedia,  marred  in  some 
instances  by  the  expression  of  opinions  narrow  and 
bigoted,  but  in  the  main  accurate  and  useful. 

Mrs.  Hale  was  born  in  Newport,  N.H.  Her  hus- 
band, a  young  lawyer,  dying,  left  her  with  five  children 
to  support ;  and  she  had  recourse  to  her  pen,  and 
proved  her  genius  as  a  writer,  her  ability  as  an  editor. 
She  edited  for  ten  years  "  The  Ladies'  Magazine,"  of 
Boston ;  and  when  it  was  united  to  the  "  Ladies'  Book," 
of  Philadelphia,  in  1837,  she  still  continued  its  editor. 
Her  first  book,  "  North  wood,"  was  reprinted  in 
London,  under  the  title  of  "  A  New  England  Tale." 
Among  her  published  works  are  "  Sketches  of  Ameri- 
can Character,"  "  Traits  of  American  Life,"  "  Flora's 
Interpreter,"  "  The  Way  to  Live  Well,  and  to  be  Well 
while  we  Live,"  "  Grosvenor,  a  Tragedy,"  Alice  Ray, 
a  Romance  in  Rhyme,"  "Harry  Guy,  the  Widow's 
Son  "  (the  last  two  were  written  for  charitable  pur- 
poses, and  the  proceeds  given  away  accordingly). 
"Three  Hours,  or  the  Vigil  of  Love,  and  other 
Poems,"  published  in  1848 ;  "  A  Complete  Dictionary 
of  Poetical  Quotations,  containing  Selections  from  the 
Writings  of  the  Poets  of  England  and  America."  This 
volume  contains  nearly  GOO  double-column  large 
octavo  pages,  and  is  the  most  complete  work  of  the 
kind  in  the  English  language.  Many  writers  have 
found  themselves  greatly  indebted  to  Mrs.  Hale  for 
this  volume ;  and  by  her  "  Woman's  Record,"  many  of 
the  pages  of  this  book  have  been  enriched.  Amid  all 


nITERARY  WOMEN.  209 

the  other  laurels  she  has  won  as  a  writer,  she  has 
recently  been  declared  the  author  of  the  famous  juve- 
nile poem,  — 

"  Mary  had  a  little  lamb." 

CAROLINE  LEE  HENTZ  was  born  in  Lancaster,  Mass. 
For  many  years  she  was  a  teacher  in  the  West  and 
South.  "  Her  first  work  was  her  drama,  *  De  Lara,  or 
the  Moorish  Bride ; '  for  which  she  obtained  the  prize 
of  five  hundred  dollars  and  a  gold  medal,  offered  in 
Philadelphia  for  the  best  original  tragedy.  Other 
tragedies,  written  by  her,  have  been  acted,  but  are 
unpublished.  She  is  widely  known  by  her  popular 
prose  tales  and  novelties,  which  have  appeared  in  our 
different  periodicals.  "  Aunt  Patty's  Scrap-Bag,"  and 
"  The  Mob  Cap,"  which  obtained  the  prize  of  two 
hundred  dollars,  have  been  almost  universally  read. 
Some  of  her  other  stories  are  "  Aunt  Mercy,"  "  The 
Blind  Girl,"  "  The  Pedlar,"  »  The  Village  Anthem," 
and  a  novel  called  "  Lovell's  Folly." 

CAROLINE  M.  KIRKLAND  was  born  in  New  York, 
wrote  in  1839  her  first  book,  "  A  New  Home,  Who'll 
Follow  ?  or,  Glimpses  of  Western  Life.  By  Mrs.  Mary 
Clavers,  an  Actual  Settler."  "  Forest  Life,"  hi  two 
volumes  followed  this  ;  and  afterward,  in  1845,  "Western 
Clearings."  She  became  editor  of  a  magazine,  and  in 
1848  visited  the  Old  World,  recording  her  impressions 
in  a  work  called  "  Holidays  Abroad,"  a  pleasant  volume. 

HANNAH  F.  LEE,  born  in  Newburyport,  Mass.,  was 
the  daughter  of  an  eminent  physician.  In  1838  she 
wrote,  "  Three  Experiments  of  Living,"  which  was 
circulated  widely  by  the  English  press,  and  was  adver- 
tised in  large  letters  at  the  bookseller?*'  in  Dresden. 
About  thirty  editions  were  issued  in  America.  Her 
next  work  was  "  Old  Painters ; "  and  this  was  succeeded 


210  WO^FEN  OP  THE   CENTURY. 

by  "  Luther  and  his  Times,"  "  Cranmer  and  his 
Times/'  and  "The  Huguenots  in  France  and  America," 
all  of  these  being  written  for  the  instruction  of  youth. 
"  Her  first  publication  was  a  novel  called  "  Grace  Sey- 
mour." "Nearly  the  whole  of  this  work  was  burnt  in 
the  great  fire  at  New  York,  before  many  of  the  volumes 
had  been  bound  and  issued.  .  .  .  Another  little  book, 
'  Rosanna,  or  Scenes  in  Boston,'  was  written  by  par- 
ticular desire,  to  increase  the  funds  of  a  charity  school. 
As  her  name  has  not  been  prefixed  to  any  of  her  books, 
it  is  impossible  to  enumerate  all  which  have  proceeded 
from  her  pen.  .  .  .  Her  first  known  publication  was  the 
appendix  to  Miss  Hannah  Adams's  memoir  of  herself, 
edited  by  Dr.  Joseph  Tuckerman.  Nearly  all  Mrs. 
Lee's  works  have  been  republished  in  England."  l 

ELIZA  LESLIE  of  Philadelphia  was  of  Scottish  and 
Swedish  ancestry,  but  is  often  mentioned  as  an  English 
authoress,  when  she  is  really  a  woman  of  our  country 
as  well  as  century.  She  wrote  the  celebrated  "  Sev- 
enty-Five Receipts  ; "  but  afterward  she  wrote  for  the 
nursery  rather  than  for  the  kitchen.  The  childhood 
of  the  writer  of  these  pages  rejoiced  in  "  The  Mirror," 
which  was  one  of  the  books  in  the  first  library  with 
which  she  was  ever  connected  as  a  joint  proprietor,  and 
which  was  formed  by  the  contributions  of  school-girls 
on  Nantucket  Island ;  and  Mrs.  Leslie's  "  Stories  for 
Emma  "  was  one  of  the  earliest  books  I  received  as  a 
prize  in  school.  "  The  American  Girls'  Book "  en- 
chanted those  early  playmates  also,  while  later  years 
were  enlivened  by  her  contributions  to  "  Godey." 
Mrs.  Leslie  did  not  forget  the  cuisine,  and  prepared  a 
large  work  on  "  Cookery,"  which  met  with  great  favor; 
also,  "The  House  Book"  and  "The  Ladies'  New 
1  Mrs.  ITale's  Woman's  llecord. 


ALICE   GARY 


LITERACY  WOMEN.  213 

Receipt  Book."  In  1841  "  Althea  Vernon  "  apj/eared  ; 
in  1848,  "  Amelia,  or  a  Young  Lady's  Vicissitudes ; "  and 
her  pen  was  busy  till  in  1856  it  was  laid  aside  forever. 

MARIA  I.  MctNTOSH  is  a  native  of  Georgia,  and 
received  her  education  in  her  native  place,  Sunbury. 
In  1835  she  removed  to  New  York,  and  there  her  first 
work  appeared,  "  Blind  Alice."  Then  came  "  Jessie 
Grahame,"  "Florence  Arnott,"  "Grace  and  Clara," 
"  Ellen  Leslie,"  "  Conquest  and  Self-Conquest," 
"  Woman  an  Enigma,"  "  Praise  and  Principle,"  and 
"  The  Cousins,"  some  of  which  were  published  by  the 
Harpers.  The  Appletons  published  "  Two  Lives,  or 
To  Seem  and  To  Be,"  "  Aunt  Kitty's  Tales,"  "  Charms 
and  Counter  Charms,"  and  "  Woman  in  America,  her 
Work  and  her  Reward."  In  1850  appeared  her  work 
entitled  "The  Christmas  Guest,"  intended  as  a  book 
for  the  holidays.  In  all  her  writings  there  are  said  to 
be  "  evidences  of  originality  and  freshness  of  mind  as 
well  as  of  good  judgment  and  sound  religious  prin- 
ciple." 

ALICE  B.  NEAL  was  born  in  Hudson,  N.Y.,  and 
educated  at  New  Hampton,  N.H.  She  married  Joseph 
C.  Neal  in  1846,  and  wrote  for  his  paper,  "  The  Satur- 
day Gazette,"  which  after  his  death  she  assisted  to 
edit.  Her  writings,  in  1850,  were  collected  into  a 
volume  called,  "  The  Gossips  of  Rivertown :  with 
Sketches  in  Prose  and  Verse."  She  wrote  two  charm- 
ing little  books,  "  Helen  Morton's  Trial  "  and  "  Pictures 
from  the  Bible."  She  has  now  passed  to  the  land 
where,  as  she  wrote  once,  — 

"  The  stars  are  trembling  in  the  flood 

Of  melody  that  thrills, 
Onward  and  upward,  till  all  space 
The  glorious  anthem  fills  1" 


214  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

ALICE  AND  PHEBE  GABY,  sisters  and  sister-poets,  are 
lovingly  remembered.  Both  were  natives  of  Mount 
Healthy,  near  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  Alice  was  born  April 
26,  1820,  and  Phebe  on  September  4,  1824.  They  lived 
till  1871,  and  then  Alice  departed  on  the  12th  of  Febru- 
ary, and  Phebe  lingered  only  till  the  sultry  days,  and  died 
on  the  last  day  of  July  of  the  same  year.  The  sisters 
could  not  long  be  separated.  "  They  were  lovely  and 
pleasant  in  their  lives,  and  in  death  they  were  not  di- 
vided." Their  early  opportunities  for  education  were 
slight,  but  they  were  rarely  gifted.  Alice's  sketches  in 
the  "  National  Era  "  first  attracted  attention.  In  1850, 
the  sisters  published  a  volume  of  poems,  and  a  second 
and  third  soon  followed.  Several  healthful  novels,  redo- 
lent with  pure  morality  and  sweet  scenes  of  home-life, 
followed  in  later  years :  "  Hagar,"  "  Hollywood,"  "  Mar- 
ried, but  not  Mated,"  "The  Bishop's  Son,"  "Pictures 
of  Country  Life,"  and  "  Snowberries." 

Underwood  says  Alice  Gary  had  "  the  clear  vision,  the 
instant  sense  of  comparison,  and  the  perception  of  anal- 
ogies not  discerned  by  common  eyes.  Her  memory 
treasured  all  the  picturesque  associations  of  her  child- 
hood, and  we  find  them  in  profusion  in  her  poems.  .  .  . 
Her  poems  can  be  read  with  hearty  enjoyment,  and  ought 
to  be  remembered  and  esteemed  as  among  the  best  utter- 
ances of  American  women."  l  Alice  Gary  died  in  the 
home,  so  well  known  to  the  literary  men  and  women  of 
her  times,  in  Twentieth  Street,  New  York  city,  now 
owned  by  Dr.  Emily  Blackvvell.  Her  funeral  was  at- 
tended, so  Horace  Greeley  said,  by  more  distinguished 
men  and  women,  and  a  larger  audience  beside,  than  any 
he  had  ever  known. 

Phebe  Gary  lingered  only  six  months  longer  on  the 
1  Handbook  of  English  Literature. 


PHCEBE   GARY. 


LITERACY   WOMEN.  217 

earth,  and  then  seemed  to  die  of  heart-sickness  and  loneli- 
ness. Her  sister  Alice  seemed  to  need  her,  she  said. 
She  died  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  whither  she  had  gone  for  her 
health.  Her  remains  were  taken  to  their  old  home  in 
New  York,  and  from  All  Souls  Church  (Dr.  Bellows) 
she  was  buried.  They  were  laid  side  by  side  in  Green- 
wood Cemetery,  and  Mrs.  Mary  Clemmer  Ames,  in 
1873,  prepared  an  acceptable  biography  of  both,  contain- 
ing their  portraits,  and  some  of  their  later  poems. 

EMMA  D.  E.  N.  SOUTHWOKTH  is  known  principally 
as  a  novelist.  She  is  a  Maryland  lady,  was  left  with 
two  children  to  maintain,  and  wrote  for  "  The  National 
Era,"  at  first  anonymously.  Encouraged  by  friends  to 
write  more,  and  to  write  books,  she  did  so,  till  now  her 
name  is  familiar  to  story-lovers  all  over  the  land,  per- 
haps the  world.  Her  principal  productions,  when  Mrs. 
Hale  prepared  her  "  Record  "  in  1851,  were  "  Retribu- 
tion, or  the  Vale  of  Shadows,"  "  The  Deserted  Wife," 
"  The  Mother-in-Law,  or  the  Isle  of  Rays,"  and  "  Shan- 
nandale."  Since  then  they  have  been  so  numerous  as 
to  merit  the  name  of  Legion  ;  and,  though  of  the  class 
termed  sensational,  are  regarded  as  of  high  moral  tone. 

ANN  S.  STEPHENS  was  a  native  of  Derby,  Conn. 
She  was  a  valued  contributor  to  various  magazines, 
some  of  which  she  edited ;  and  for  one  of  her  stories, 
"  Mary  Derwent,"  she  received  a  prize  of  four  hundred 
dollars.  In  the  autumn  of  1850  Mrs.  Stephens  accom- 
panied some  friends  on  a  tour  through  Europe  and 
Eastern  lands,  expecting  to  be  absent  about  two  years. 
So  says  Mrs.  Hale.  The  fruits  of  that  season  of  travel 
appeared  in  her  later  writings,  which  have  been  very 
popular.  The  culture  which  foreign  journeyings  afford 
is  invaluable  alike  for  the  story-writer  or  the  sermon- 
izer.  Novelists  and  clergymen  are  among  the  people 


218  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

most  "benefited  by  rambling  in  storied  haunts  and 
classic  lands.  One  of  Mrs.  Stephens's  later  novels, 
"  Fashion  and  Famine,"  is  said  to  have  been  exceed- 
ingly popular,  and  its  author  to  "possess  powers  of 
description  of  the  first  order." 

LOUISA  C.  TUTHILL  was  born  and  educated  in  New 
Haven,  Conn.  "  In  1825  she  was  left  a  widow  with 
four  children,  and  to  solace  herself  under  her  heavy 
affliction  she  had  recourse  to  her  pen.  At  this  time  she 
wrote  4  James  Somers,  the  Pilgrim's  Son,'  published 
in  1827;  and  'Mary's  Visit  to  B.',  in  1829.  She 
continued  to  write  anonymously  for  periodical  literature 
for  some  time,  and  in  1848-49  published  '  The  Young 
Lady's  Reader,'  and  '  Young  Lady's  Friend ; '  the 
first  works  to  which  her  name  was  attached.  In  1842 
she  removed  to  the  vicinity  of  Boston,  where  she 
wrote,  '  I  will  be  a  Gentleman,'  and  '  I  will  be  a 
Lady ; '  books  for  the  young,  which  have  been  very- 
successful.  She  continued  the  series."  And  not  long 
after  having  removed  to  Philadelphia  published,  "  The 
History  of  Architecture,"  following  it  with  a  book  for 
young  mothers,  and  a  series  of  books  entitled  "  Success 
in  Life."  "Mrs.  Tuthill  is  a  pleasant  writer,"  says 
Mrs.  Hale :  "  her  cheerful  spirit  and  hopeful  philosophy 
give  an  attractive  charm  even  to  good  advice,  which, 
like  medicine,  requires  often  to  be  sugared  before  it  is 
willingly  taken." 

"  HABBIET  V.  CHENEY  is  a  native  of  Massachu- 
setts. Her  love  of  literature  was  developed  in  child- 
hood, probably  owing  much  to  the  influence  of  her 
mother's  taste  and  genius,  who  was  author  of  one  of 
the  earliest  American  novels,  *  The  Coquette,  or  His- 
tory of  Eliza  Wharton.'  Soon  after  she  left  school,  she 
wrote,  in  conjunction  with  her  sister,  '  The  Sunday 


LITERARY   WOMEN.  219 

School,  or  Village  Sketches.'  "  Her  next  work  was 
"  A  Peep  at  the  Pilgrims,"  which  was  republished  in 
London.  "The  Rivals  of  Acadia"  was  the  next;  and 
then  for  a  number  of  years  her  time  was  devoted  to 
her  family.  The  death  of  her  husband  led  her  again 
to  literary  exertions ;  and  she  wrote  "  Sketches  from  the 
life  of  Christ,"  and  "  Confessions  of  an  Early  Martyr," 
and  afterward  wrote  largely  for  a  magazine  in  Canada, 
to  which  region  she  removed. 

SUSAN  FENIMORE  COOPER,  the  daughter  of  the 
distinguished  novelist  of  Coopers  town,  N.Y.,  ought  not 
to  be  forgotten  as  one  of  the  women  who  loved  litera- 
ture in  our  first  century.  Her  "  Rural  Hours,"  pub- 
lished in  1850,  and  other  books  written  since  that 
period,  show  that  she  has  inherited  some  of  the  paternal 
ability  to  wield  a  pen. 

MARGARET  COXE  of  Burlington,  N.J.,  wrote  some 
excellent  works :  "  Botany  of  the  Scriptures,"  "  Won- 
ders of  the  Deep,"  and  "  The  Young  Lady's  Compan- 
ion." 

"  ELIZA  FARRAR,  wife  of  Prof.  John  Farrar  of  Har- 
vard College,  has  written  several  works  of  merit  .  .  . 
'  The  Life  of  Lafayette,'  and  4  Life  of  Howard,'  '  The 
'Youth's  Letter  Writer,'  'The  Children's  Robinson 
Crusoe,'  4  The  Young  Lady's  Friend,'  and  latest  '  Rec- 
ollections of  Seventy  Years.'  " 

MARY  ANN  HAMMER  DODD  is  known  as  a  fine 
magazine  writer,  and  JANE  A.  EAMES  as  a  writer  of 
Sunday-school  books. 

MINNIE  S.  DAVIS  is  a  resident  of  Hartford,  Conn., 
the  daughter  of  Rev.  S.  A.  Davis,  and  from  early  youth 
busy  with  her  pen ;  and,  though  an  invalid  for  many 
years,  there  are  many  books,  magazine  articles,  juvenile 
dramas,  poems.  &c.,  to  prove  her  industry.  "  Marion 


220  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

Lester  "  is  the  title  of  one  of  her  volumes  which  has 
been  very  popular  ;  "  Clinton  Forest,"  the  title  of 
another.  It  is  confessed  this  brief  notice  does  justice 
neither  to  the  literary  excellence  and  high  moral  tone 
of  her  productions,  nor  to  the  Christian  submission  of 
the  patient  sufferer. 

ELLEN  E.  MILES,  born  in  Randolph,  Mass.,  in  1835, 
has  compiled  a  dainty  volume  called  "  Our  Home 
Beyond  the  Tide,  and  other  Poems  ;  "  and  has  written 
both  prose  and  verse  for  various  periodicals.  She 
assisted  in  collecting  a  volume  of  poems  by  Rev.  Phebe 
A.  Hanaford,  and  wrote  the  biographical  sketch  which 
accompanies  the  volume.  She  is  now  writing,  in  con- 
junction with  the  same  lady,  a  volume  called  "  Seashore 
and  Woodland  Rambles,"  a  portion  of  which  has 
already  been  published  as  a  magazine  article. 

CAROLINE  A.  SOULE.  This  writer  will  be  specially 
mentioned  in  the  chapter  on  "Women  Journalists." 
She  is  one  of  the  busy  women  who  with  voice  and  pen 
seek  to  benefit  humanity. 

ELIZABETH  PALMER  PEABODY  is  well  known  as  an 
educator,  and  perhaps  should  be  mentioned  mainly  with 
"  Women  Teachers."  Mrs.  Hale  says  of  her,  "  Daugh- 
ter of  Dr.  N.  Peabody,  she  is  descended  on  the  moth- 
er's side  from  the  two  Joseph  Palmers,  one  of  whom 
was  president  and  the  other  secretary  of  the  first  Pro- 
vincial Congress  that  assembled  in  Massachusetts  to 
consider  British  wrongs  ;  and  both  of  whom,  the  father 
as  brigadier-general,  the  son  as  his  aid,  were  engaged  in 
the  battle  of  Lexington.  Miss  Peabody  was  born,  May 
16,  1804,  at  Billerica,  and  lived  in  her  early  life  in 
Salem,  Mass.,  but,  since  1822,  has  resided  principally 
in  Boston,  where  she  has  been  engaged  in  education 
and  literary  pursuits.  She  first  published  a  '  Key  to 


LITEEABY    WOMEN.  221 

Hebrew  History,'  and  a  '  Key  to  Grecian  History ; » 
she  next  wrote  the  '  Records  of  a  School,'  which  went 
into  the  second  edition ;  and  also  contributed  to  the 
early  numbers  of  the  '  Journal  of  Education  ; '  to  the 
'  Christian  Examiner  '  of  1834,  in  which  are  some  arti- 
cles on  the  '  Spirit  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures ; '  and  to 
the  '  Dial,'  in  which  she  wrote  the  articles  on  Social- 
ism. In  1849  Miss  Peabody  edited  'The  ^Esthetic 
Papers,'  to  which  she  contributed  an  article  '  On  the 
Dorian  Culture,'  more  elaborate  than  any  thing  else 
she  has  written ;  and  a  paper  upon  '  The  Significance 
of  the  Alphabet ; '  besides  several  shorter  articles  and 
poems.  Her  latest  work  is  a  school-book,  entitled  the 
'  Polish-American  System  of  Chronology,'  being  a 
modified  translation  of  Gen.  Bern's  method  of  teaching 
history  on  a  chronological  system."  Thus  speaks  Mrs. 
Hale  concerning  Miss  Peabody,  who  has  continued  her 
literary  labors  since  that  date,  and  has  been  especially 
active  in  introducing  books  on  the  kindergarten  system 
of  education  to  the  notice  of  parents  and  teachers. 
She  has  also  united  in  the  reforms  of  the  day,  and  given 
pen  and  voice  to  the  cause  of  the  advancement  of 
women.  Mrs.  Hale  says,  "  Miss  Peabody's  writings 
are  of  a  class  unusual  to  her  sex.  They  evince  great 
learning  and  research,  a  mind  free  from  the  trammels 
of  prejudice,  and  capable  of  judging  for  itself  on  what- 
ever subject  its  attention  may  be  turned :  one  whose 
aim  is  high,  —  no  less  than  the  progressive  improve- 
ment of  her  race,  and  who  presses  forward  to  the  end 
she  has  in  view  with  an  earnestness  and  energy  pro- 
portioned to  its  importance.  Her  poems  are  harmoni- 
ous, and  show  more  thought  than  is  usually  seen  in 
such  effusions." 

The  two  sisters   of  Miss  Peabody,  who  are  known 


222  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

more  by  their  husbands'  names,  and  because  of  their 
husbands'  fame,  —  the  wife  of  Horace  Mann,  and  the 
wife  of  Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  —  were  women  of  liter- 
ary tastes,  and  performed  some  literary  work,  entitling 
them  to  be  among  the  literary  women  of  the  century. 

PHEBE  A.  HANAFORD,  the  writer  of  this  volume, 
has  wielded  the  pen  for  the  press  ever  since  the  age  of 
thirteen ;  and  in  the  third  of  this  century  during  which 
she  has  written,  has  had  published  the  following  vol- 
umes, which  have  met  with  encouraging  sale.  "  My 
Brother,"  a  miniature  volume  of  prose  and  verse,  pub- 
lished in  1852 ;  "  Lucretia,  the  Quakeress,"  an  Anti- 
Slavery  story,  published  first  in  "The  Independent 
Democrat"  of  Concord,  N.H.,  and  then  in  book-form 
in  1853  ;  "  Leonette,"  a  Sunday-school  book,  published 
in  185T ;  "  The  Best  of  Books  and  its  History,"  pub- 
lished in  1860,  having  previously  been  delivered,  chapter 
by  chapter,  as  lectures  in  the  Baptist  Sunday  school  of 
Nantucket ;  "  The  Young  Captain,"  a  memorial  of 
Capt.  Richard  C.  Derby,  who  fell  at  Antietam,  pub- 
lished hi  1865 ;  "  Frank  Nelson,  or  The  Runaway 
Boy  "  a  juvenile,  published  in  1865  ;  "  Life  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,"  published  in  1865,  by  B.  B.  Russell  of  Bos- 
ton, the  sale  of  which  reached  twenty  thousand,  five 
thousand  being  also  published  in  German ;  "  Field, 
Gunboat,  Hospital,  and  Prison,"  being  records  of  the 
war,  published  in  1866  ;  and  «  The  Soldier's  Daughter," 
a  prize-story,  also  in  1866  ;  "  The  Life  of  George  Pea- 
body,"  in  18TO  (which  reached  a  sale  of  sixteen  thou- 
sand) ;  "  From  Shore  to  Shore,  and  other  Poems," 
published  in  1871 ;  and  in  the  same  year,  "  The  Life  of 
Charles  Dickens."  Other  smaller  volumes  for  chil- 
dren, many  editorials,  sketches,  and  other  articles  in 
prose  and  verse  for  many  periodicals,  and  several  pub- 


LITERARY  WOMEN.  223 

lished  speeches  and  sermons,  attest  to  the  busy  pen  of 
one  who  will  be  mentioned  biographically  in  the  chap- 
ter on  "  Women  Preachers." 

MARY  B.  SHINDLER,  better  known  as  Mary  S.  B. 
Dana,  published  several  works  :  "  The  Southern  "  and 
the  "  Northern  Harp,"  "  The  Parted  Family  and  other 
Poems,"  and  afterward  several  tales  for  }*outh.  But 
the  book  by  which  she  is  best  known  is  one  published 
in  1845,  entitled  "  Lette/s  to  Relatives  and  Friends," 
which  justifies  her  change  from  Calvinistic  opinions  to 
Unitarian.  Since  then  she  has  married  an  Episcopal 
clergyman,  and  united  with  his  church. 

ANNA  E.  APPLETON,  born  in  Boston,  July  22,  1825, 
educated  in  the  best  schools  of  Boston,  and  in  the  State 
Normal  School  under  Cyrus  Pierce  and  Samuel  J.  May, 
a  pupil  and  assistant  in  the  school  of  Elizabeth  P.  Pea- 
body,  has  written  both  prose  and  verse,  chiefly  for  the 
young.  In  1869  a  volume  from  her  pen  was  published 
as  one  of  a  prize  series  by  the  Unitarian  Sabbath  School 
Association,  entitled  "  Stories  for  Eva."  Will  be  men- 
tioned among  "  Women  Teachers." 

CORNELIA  TTJTHILL,  is  the  author  of  "  Wreaths  and 
Branches  for  the  Church,"  "  Christian  Ornaments," 
"  The  Boy  of  Spirit,"  and  other  juvenile  works.  She 
is  a  native  of  New  Haven,  Conn. 

SARAH  HALL,  born  in  Philadelphia,  Oct.  30,  1761, 
daughter  of  Rev.  John  Erving,  published  a  book 
entitled  "  Conversations  on  the  Bible."  "  This  work, 
which  was  very  well  received,  both  in  this  country  and 
and  in  England,  contains  a  fund  of  information,  which 
could  only  have  been  collected  by  diligent  and  pro- 
found thought.  While  engaged  in  this  undertaking 
she  began  the  study  of  Hebrew,  to  enable  herself  to 
make  the  necessary  researches,  and  attained  a  consid- 


224  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

able  proficiency  in  this  difficult  language.  When  it  is 
stated  that  Mrs.  Hall  commenced  this  work  after  she 
had  passed  the  age  of  fifty,  when  she  had  been  the 
mother  of  eleven  children,  and  that  during  her  whole 
life  she  was  distinguished  for  her  industry,  economy, 
and  attention  to  all  the  duties  of  her  station,  it  must  be 
allowed  that  she  was  no  ordinary  woman.  Her  other 
writings  were  confined  to  contributions  to  the  leading 
literary  periodicals  of  the  day."  MARY  E.  LEE  of 
Charleston,  S.C.,  wrote  prose  and  verse  to  great  accept- 
ance. The  Massachusetts  School  Library  Association 
published  "Social  Evenings,  or  Historical  Tales," 
which  was  very  popular.  After  her  death,  in  1849,  a 
selection  from  her  poems  was  published. 

MARGARET  HARRISON  SMITH,  the  daughter  of  Col. 
John  Bayard,  who  signed  the  first  legislative  act  ever 
passed  in  any  of  the  United  States  for  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery,  as  Speaker  of  the  Pennsylvania  Legis- 
lature, was  born  in  1778.  Her  first  book  was  pub- 
lished in  1827,  title,  "  A  Winter  in  Washington ;  or, 
The  Seymour  Family."  Her  next,  "  What  is  Gen- 
tility ?  "  was  published  in  1830. 

ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS,  the  mother,  was  daugh- 
ter of  Prof.  Moses  Stuart,  and  wife  of  Prof.  Austin 
Phelps.  She  died  in  1852,  still  young.  Her  three 
books,  "  Sunny  Side,"  "  A  Peep  at  Number  Five,"  and 
"The  Angel  over  the  Right  Shoulder,"  have  been 
much  read  and  admired. 

ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS,  the  daughter,  has  fol- 
lowed worthily  in  her  footsteps.  Her  "  Gates  Ajar," 
"  Hedged  In,"  "  Men,  Women,  and  Ghosts,"  have 
gained  wide  and  deserved  circulation.  But  this 
chapter  is  already  long  enough,  and  the  writer's  pen 
weary  in  its  proud  mention  of  the  literary  women  ir 


LITERARY  WOMEN.  225 

America.  Some  can  hardly  be  mentioned,  and  some 
must  be  left  out  utterly,  in  the  hope  that  some  other 
writer,  with  more  space  and  more  leisure,  will  do  justice 
to  all.  ELIZABETH  WARNER,  or  WETHERELL,  and  her 
sister,  will  not  be  forgotten  while  "  The  Wide,  Wide 
World  "  or  "  Queechy"  shall  be  read.  MARIA  GUM- 
MINGS  will  be  remembered  till  "The  Lamplighter "  is 
no  more.  AUGUSTA  J.  EVANS  is  known  as  far  as  "  Beu- 
lah  "  is  read.  And  there  is  "  GAIL  HAMILTON  "  (MARY 
A.  DODGE  of  Hamilton  of  Mass.),  who  has  added  valua- 
ble books  to  our  American  libraries,  —  "  Country  Liv- 
ing, and  Country  Thinking  "  "  Gala  Days,"  "  Stumbling 
Blocks,"  "  Summer  Rest,"  "  Wool  Gathering,"  "  Skir- 
mishes and  Sketches,"  "  Woman's  Wrongs,"  &e. 
Long  may  she  send  forth  her  spicy  utterances,  becom- 
ing daily  more  earnest  for  reform  and  righteous  living  ! 
But  ADELINE  D.  T.  WHITNEY  (daughter  of  the  late 
Enoch  Train,  born  in  Boston,  Sept.  15,  1824)  is  a 
name  that  must  be  here,  since  her  admirable  books  have 
so  blessed  and  strengthened  human  souls.  The  tes- 
timony of  reviewers  has  been  given  so  decidedly  in  her 
favor,  that  no  further  word  is  needed;  and  "  Faith 
Gartney's  Girlhood,"  "  We  Girls,"  "  The  Other  Girls," 
"Real  Folks,"  "Hitherto,"  "Patience  Strong's  Out- 
ings "  and  Sights  and  Insights,"  &c.,  will  carry  on  her 
fame  to  latest  American  generations. 

SARAH  PAYSON  PARTON,  better  known  as  "  Fanny 
Fern,"  and  the  sister  of  N.  P.  Willis,  should  be  remem- 
bered among  our  literary  women. 

ABBA  GOOLD  WOOLSON,  born  at  Windham,  Me., 
April,  30,  1838,  is  the  author  of  "  Woman  in  Ameri- 
can Society,"  and  a  work  on  "  Dress  Reform."  She  is 
a  contributor  to  various  periodicals,  and  writes  verse  as 
well  as  prose.  Her  poem,  "  Over  the  Hills,"  is  in 
Underwood's  "  Handbook  of  American  Authors." 


226  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

LOUISE  CHANDLER  MOULTON,  born  in  Pomfret, 
Conn.,  1835,  contributor  to  "  Harper's "  "  New  York 
Tribune,"  &c.  Her  poem,  "  The  House  in  the  Meadow," 
is  in  the  above  mentioned  "  Handbook."  LUCY  LAR- 
COM'S  "  Hannah  Binding  Shoes  "  is  also  there.  HAR- 
RIET ELIZABETH  PRESCOTT  SPOFFORD  was  born  in 
Calais,  Me.,  April  3, 1835.  She  was  married  in  1855,  to 
Richard  S.  Spofford,  Esq.,  a  lawyer  of  Newburyport, 
Mass.  She  was  early  distinguished  by  her  literary 
ability.  She  contributed  a  story  entitled  "  In  a 
Cellar  "  to  the  "  Atlantic  Monthly,"  in  its  first  year  of 
publication,  which  was  greatly  admired  for  its  vivacity, 
its  insight  into  character,  and  its  brilliant  dialogue.  In 
1859  she  published  a  story  called  "  Sir  Rohan's  Ghost." 

"  In  1863  she  collected  a  series  of  tales  which  she 
had  written  for  the  magazines,  entitled  *  The  Amber 
Gods,  and  Other  Stories.'  '  Azarian  '  followed  in  1864. 
'A  Thief  in  the  Night,'  a  short  but  powerful  novel- 
ette, was  published  in  1872.  She  has  also  written 
many  poems,  sketches,  and  stories  that  remain  uncol- 
lected." 1  HELEN  (FISKE)  HUNT,  daughter  of  the 
late  Prof.  N.  W.  Fiske  of  Amherst  College,  was  born 
in  Amherst,  Mass.,  in  1831.  She  was  married  to  Major 
Edward  B.  Hunt,  U.S.A.,  an  eminent  officer  of  engi- 
neers, and  assistant  professor  at  West  Point,  who  was 
killed  in  1863  by  a  premature  explosion  while  experi- 
menting with  a  submarine  battery  of  his  own  invention. 
Mrs.  Hunt  resides  in  Newport,  R.I.  She  has  published 
a  volume  of  poems  called  "  Verses  by  H.  H." 
(1871),  and  a  collection  of  foreign  sketches,  entitled 
"Bits  of  Travel"  (1872)."  2 

1  Underwood's  Handbook  of  American  Authors. 

2  Underwood's  Handbook,  &c. 


LITEBAKY   WOMEN.  227 

HENRIETTA  LEE  PALMEE,  wife  of  J.  W.  Palmer, 
M.D.,  of  Baltimore,  has  written  a  work  called  "  The 
Heroines  of  Shakspeare." 

EMMA  V.  HALLETT  has  published  a  story  called 
"Natalie;  or,  A  Gem  Among  the  Seaweeds."  LYDIA 
P.  PALMER  and  EMILY  L.  MEYEE,  mother  and  daughter, 
of  Nantucket,  Mass.,  but  now  residing  in  Germany, 
have  written  much  for  periodicals,  both  original  and 
translations.  JULIA  CEANCH  has  contributed  "  Three 
Successful  Girls  "  to  our  literature.  LIDA  M.  DICKIN- 
SON has  given  us  a  religious-philosophic  story,  called 
"  Mistaken,"  and  writes  for  the  "  Woman's  Journal  " 
under  the  name  of  "  Lydia  Fuller."  EDNA  D. 
CHENEY  has  blessed  the  young  people  with  stories,  and 
used  her  pen  in  the  service  of  art  and  humanity,  till 
one  is  at  a  loss  whether  to  place  her  with  reformers, 
artists, '  teachers,  or  literary  women.  MAEIE  A. 
BHOWNE  has,  in  connection  with  her  friend  SELMA 
BOEG,  given  America  many  translations  of  the  works 
of  Sophie  Schwartz.  HELEN  C.  CONANT  has  furnished 
us  a  fine  "  History  of  the  Translation  of  the  English 
Bible,"  "Life  of  Judson,"  and  other  works.  ANTOI- 
NETTE BEOWN  BLACKWELL  should  be  mentioned  in 
this  chapter,  but  that  she  deserves  mention  also  with 
the  preachers,  and  women  of  science. 

Some  women  who  have  high  claims  to  be  numbered 
among  literary  women  will  be  mentioned  in  the  chapter 
on  "  Poets,"  or  among  the  professional  women.  And 
how  the  children  would  rebuke  the  writer  if  LOUISA 
M.  ALCOTT  of  Concord,  Mass.,  should  be  wholly 
ignored.  But  who  could  forget  the  author  of  "  Little 
Women,"  " Little  Men,"  "  Old-Fashioned  Girl," 
"Work,"  &c.,  &c.,  which  all  the  children,  old  and 
young,  enjoy.  "  Louisa  M.  Alcott  may  be  credited 


228  WOMEN  OP  THE  CENTURY. 

with  inventing  a  new  substitute  for  a  speech.  She 
visited  the  Sorosis  the  other  day,  and  was  formally  pre 
sented  to  the  Club  by  the  president  as  the  '  most  suc- 
cessful woman  author  in  America,'  and  being  on  hei 
feet  told  a  little  story.  She  said  at  Vassar  College  the 
girls,  as  usual,  asked  for  a  speech  ;  and  when  she,  also 
as  usual,  told  them  she  never  had  and  never  intended  to 
make  one,  they  requested  that  she  would  place  herself 
in  a  prominent  position,  and  turn  around  slowly.  This 
she  consented  to  do ;  and,  if  revolving  would  satisfy  or 
gratify  Sorosis,  she  was  willing  to  '  revolve.'  " 

There  are  others  worthy  of  praiseful  remembrance ; 
but  like  the  day  that  will  come  to  a  close  before  all  our 
work  is  done,  so  must  this  chapter  before  all  has  been 
said  concerning  our  literary  galaxy ;  but,  with  a 
thought  of  McDonald  Clarke's  words,  — 

"  Now  twilight  puts  her  curtain  down 
And  pins  it  with  a  star," 

this  chapter  shall  be  finished,  and  emblazoned  with  the 
name  of  one  who  will  be  more  fully  mentioned  hi  the 
next  chapter,  but  who  is  now  one  of  the  chief  among 
our  literary  women,  viz.,  JULIA  WABD  HOWE. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

WOMEN   POETS. 

Julia  Ward  Howe  — Lydia  H.  Sigourney  —  Elizabeth  Akers  Allen  — 
Lucy  Larcom  —  Alice  and  Phebe  Gary  —  Frances  S.  Osgood  — 
Caroline  A.  Mason  —  Celia  Thaxter,  &c. 

"  God  wills,  man  hopes :  in  common  »ouls 

Hope  is  but  vague  and  undefined, 
Till  from  the  poet's  tongue  the  message  rolls, 
A  blessing  to  his  kind." 

J.  B.  LOWELL. 

"Make  sweet  melody,  sing  many  songs,  that  thou  mayest  be  remembered." 
—  ISA.  xxiii.  16. 

in  VERY  land  has  had  its  singers;  and  in  all  lands 
-J — 1  the  real  poets  have  been,  and  are,  the  true  proph- 
ets. Our  country  forms  no  exception.  The  women 
of  our  country  and  our  first  century  have  genuine 
poets  among  them,  —  some  still  here  amid  the  shadows 
of  time,  some  already  resting  amid  the  unveiled  splen- 
dors of  eternity.  This  chapter  will  mention  a  few  of 
them. 

And  first,  JULIA  WARD  HOWE,  whose  "Battle  Hymn 
of  the  Republic  "  has  been  "  Marching  on  "  with  the 


230  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

author's  fame  towards  the  appreciation  of  a  whole  peo- 
ple. Mrs.  Howe  has  written  many  exquisite  poems, 
thoughtful  and  strong  as  Emerson's,  sweet  as  Whittier's, 
and  welcome  as  herself  to  those  who  know  her.  She 
has  been  called  the  Browning  of  America,  but  Eliza- 
beth and  Julia  do  not  strike  one  lyre.  Americans  may 
be  pardoned  for  preferring  the  author  of  "  Passion 
Flower,"  "Words  for  the  Hour,"  and  "Later  Lyrics." 
There  is  a  drama  also,  "  The  World's  Own,"  which  is 
poetic,  and  are  not  her  prose  works  full  of  poetry  ? 
"  The  Trip  to  Cuba,"  so  redolent  with  memories  of  the 
scholar  and  preacher,  Theodore  Parker,  then  an  invalid 
fellow-voyager ;  "  From  the  Oak  to  the  Olive,"  so 
rich  in  fancies  and  fine  descriptions  !  One  is  at  a  loss 
to  know  whether  to  call  Mrs.  Howe  poet  or  philoso- 
pher. In  later  years  she  has  added  the  title  of  re- 
former, and  shown  herself  worthy  of  her  place  by  the 
side  of  Samuel  G.  Howe,  the  philanthropist,  whose 
"  Memoir,"  for  the  use  of  the  blind  and  others,  the 
faithful  wife  has  just  prepared.  That  she  is  the  daugh- 
ter of  Samuel  Ward,  a  New  York  banker,  that  her 
mother,  Mrs.  Julia  Ward,  was  a  poet,  and  that  she  was 
finely  educated,  with  other  facts,  may  be  learned  from 
the  volume  called  "  Eminent  Women  of  the  Age ; "  and, 
since  it  is  there  to  be  found,  less  may  be  said  here. 
May  it  be  many  a  day  before  her  biography  in  full  shall 
be  penned ;  for  the  world  hath  need  of  such  as  she,  and 
our  country  can  ill  afford  to  lose  a  woman  at  once  so 
sweet  and  strong,  so  loving  and  so  wise  ! 

LYDIA  H.  SIGOUBNEY  was  an  earlier  writer  in  rhyme, 
and  her  rhythmic  contributions  to  the  literature  of  our 
first  century  are  many.  In  the  volume  published  by 
her  daughter,  called  "  Letters  of  Life,"  the  story  of  her 
efforts  and  successes  as  a  writer,  and  her  worth  as  a 


MRS.  JULIA  WARD   HOWE. 


WOMEN  POETS.  233 

woman,  is  well  told.  She  wrote  prose  as  well  as  verse 
"  She  was  a  most  prolific  writer,  having  published 
no  less  than  fifty-five  volumes,  consisting  of  poems, 
biographies,  tales,  and  miscellanies."  She  was  born  in 
Norwich,  Conn.,  Sept.  1,  1791,  and  died  in  Hartford, 
Conn.,  June  10,  1865. 

"ELIZABETH  AKEKS  ALLEN  was  born  in  the  town  of 
Strong,  Franklin  Co.,  Me.,  Oct.  9,  1832.  She  was  mar- 
ried in  1860  to  Paul  Akers,  the  sculptor,  who  died 
within  less  than  a  year  afterwards.  She  is  now  the 
wife  of  Mr.  E.  M.  Allen  of  New  York.  Her  first 
efforts  in  verse  were  published  with  the  nom  de  plume 
of  Florence  Percy,  and  had  a  wide  popularity  through 
the  newspapers.  A  volume  of  her  poems  was  published 
in  1867  by  Messrs.  Fields,  Osgood,  &  Co.  They  have 
undoubted  merits,  being  full  of  tender  feeling,  with  no 
tinge  of  morbidness,  and  touched  here  and  there  with 
high  lights  of  vivid  imagery  and  picturesque  epithets. 
Notice  this  picture  of  chestnut  blossoms  :  — 

'  Lanterned  with  white  the  chestnut  branches  wave.' 
"And  the  plaintive -song  of  the  wild-bird:  — 

'  Filling  with  his  sweet  trouble  all  the  air.' 
"  Observe  the  effect  of  the  church  windows :  — 

'  Where  through  the  windows  melts  the  unwilling  light, 

And  in  its  passage  beams  their  gorgeous  stain, 

Then  bars  the  gloom  with  hues  all  rainbow  bright, 

As  human  souls  grows  beautiful  through  pain.' 

"  See  this  glimpse  of  the  camp  :  — 

'  The  darkened  hills 
Mushroomed  with  tents.' 

If  besides  the  specimens  printed   here,  our  readers 


234  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

would  see  instances  of  the  author's  power,  especially 
in  pathetic  description,  let  them  turn  to  her  volume, 
and  read  '  The  Sparrow  at  Sea,'  and  « Left  Behind.' "  J 
Let  them  look  also  for  "  My  Angel  Name,"  the  poem  by 
which  she  first  became  known  to  the  author  of  this 
volume  and  to  many  others. 

LTTCY  LARCOM  is  a  poet  to  whom  applies  the  phrase, 
"  Poeta  nascitur  non  fit."  She  was  born  at  Beverly 
Farms,  Mass.,  in  1826,  so  Underwood  tells  us ;  and  then 
he  quotes  her  "  Hannah  Binding  Shoes,"  which  has 
been  sung  by  the  Hutchinsons  far  and  wide.  Mrs. 
Hale  says,  "  While  she  was  employed  as  an  operative  at 
Lowell,  she  first  began  to  write  ;  and  her  earliest  effu- 
sions, both  in  prose  and  verse,  appeared  in  "  The  Low- 
ell Offering,"  and  were  received  witfc  particular  favor. 
At  present  Miss  Larcom  is  employed  as  a  teacher  in 
Illinois."  Since  the  publication  of  Mrs.  Hale's  book, 
Miss  Larcom  has  been  a  teacher  in  the  Wheaton  Semi- 
nary for  Young  Ladies  at  Norton,  Mass.,  and  afterward 
editorially  connected  with  "  Our  Young  Folks."  She 
has  published  at  least  two  volumes :  one  simply  entitled 
"  Poems  by  Lucy  Larcom  ;  "  the  other,  "  An  Idyl  of 
Work,"  a  poem  embodying  scenes  in  factory  life. 

MAEY  T.  WEBBER,  born  in  Beverly,  Mass.  (The 
daughter  of  Israel  Trask,  the  successful  introducer  of 
Britannia  ware  into  this  country),  has  written  mostly 
with  the  nom  de  plume  of  "  Mary  Webb."  She  studied 
at  the  celebrated  Bradford  Academy,  of  which  the  sis- 
ter of  Ann  Hasseltine  Judson  was  principal ;  and  has 
written  less  than  she  might,  through  a  modesty  equal 
to  her  fine  talent.  In  1861  she  united  with  the  author 
of  this  volume  in  compiling  a  collection  of  loyal  and 
patriotic  poems,  called  "  Chimes  cf  Freedom  and 

i  Underwood's  Handbook,  &c.,  p.  349. 


WOMEN  POETS.  235 

Onion,"  to  which  she  contributed,  from  her  own  pen, 
poems  "  On  the  Death  of  Ellsworth,"  and  "  Our  Mas- 
sachusetts Dead."  Miss  MILES'S  little  volume  opens 
with  a  poem  bearing  the  title  of  the  book,  "  Our  Home 
Beyond  the  Tide,"  and  closes  with  one  of  the  same 
title  by  "  Mary  Webb,"  both  composed  by  their  authors 
in  Beverly,  Mass.,  after  a  contemplation  of  the  same 
picture. 

CABOLINE  A.  MASON  was  the-  daughter  of  Dr.  Cal- 
vin Briggs,  and  was  born  at  Marblehead,  Mass.,  in 
1823.  She  was  a  schoolmate  and  friend  with  Mrs. 
Webber  at  the  Bradford  Academy.  The  wife  of 
Charles  Mason,  Esq.,  a  lawyer  of  Fitchburg,  Mass., 
she  now  resides  there  on  the  side  of  the  famous  Roll- 
stone  Mountain,  which  adds  to  the  picturesqueness  of 
the  city.  "  Her  earlier  poems  were  published  in  the 
*  Salem  Register,'  under  the  signature  of  *  Caro.'  She 
afterwards  contributed  to  the  '  National  Era '  and  Anti- 
Slavery  Standard.'  She  has  also  written  for  '  The  Con- 
gregationalist,'  *  The  Liberal  Christian,'  4  The  Monthly 
Religious  Magazine,'  *  The  Independent,' '  The  Christian 
Union,'  and  occasionally  for  other  papers  and  periodi- 
cals. In  1852  she  published  a  volume  of  her  verses, 
entitled  'Utterance:  a  Collection  of  Home  Poems.' 
These  were  the  productions  of  her  earlier  days.  They 
gave  good  promise  however,  of  the  still  better  offerings 
of  her  maturer  years."  1  The  Mass.  S.  S.  Society  pub- 
lished a  small  prose  volume  from  her  pen,  entitled 
"  Rose  Hamilton."  Mrs.  Mason  is  widely  known  as 
the  author  of  "  Do  they  miss  me  at  Home? "  a  song  she 
wrote  when  a  homesick  school-girl,  and  which  was 
sung  by  our  soldier-boys  in  camp  during  all  the 
war. 

1  Singers  and  Songs  of  the  Liberal  Faith,  by  Alfred  P.  Putnam. 


236  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

"LYDiA  LOUISA  ANN  VERY,"  says  Dr.  Putnan, 
"  sister  of  Jones  and  Washington  Very,  both  of  whom 
have  a  place  in  the  roll  of  our  singers,  was  born  in 
Salem,  Nov.  2,  1823.  For  about  .thirty  years  she  has 
been  with  her  sister,  Francis  Eliza,  a  teacher  in  the 
schools  of  her  native  city.  She  shares  largely  the  fine 
poetic  gift  which  distinguishes  the  family,  and  in  1856 
published  a  volume  of  her  verses,  which  was  printed 
by  W.  F.  Draper,  Andover,  Mass.  Since  then,  she  has 
from  time  to  time  contributed  other  offerings  to  various 
Boston  and  Salem  papers,  while  yet  engaged  in  her 
vocation  as  a  teacher.  As  an  artist,  she  has  produced 
pictorial  illustrations  of  '  Red  Riding  Hood,'  and  other 
children's  stories,  accompanied  by  exquisite  designs  and 
pretty  juvenile  verses.  Those  have  proved  to  be  very 
popular,  and  have  been  re-published  in  Germany." l 

"SARAH  WHITE  LIVERMORE  was  born  in  Wilton, 
N.H.,  July  20,  1789,  and  was  the  daughter  of  Rev. 
Jonathan  Livermore,  who  was  settled  as  the  first  min- 
ister of  that  town,  Dec.  14,  1763."  So  says  Dr.  Put- 
nam, from  whose  book  we  learn  that  she  was  a  teacher, 
and  was  instrumental  in  establishing  one  of  the  earliest 
Sunday  schools  in  the  country.  She  wrote  verses  for 
a  variety  of  occasions,  but  they  were  never  collected 
into  a  book.  She  died  July  3, 1874,  at  Wilton,  N.H., 
nearly  eighty-five  years  old. 

CAROLINE  GILMAN,  who  has  been  mentioned  among 
the  literary  women,  should  be  classed  with  the  poets 
also.  Judge  White  of  Salem  noted  for  several  years 
the  hymns  sung  in  the  First  Church  of  that  city,  and 
on  examination  found  that  Mrs.  Oilman's  hymn,  "  God 
Our  Father,"  had  been  most  used.  The  first  stanza  is 
this :  — 

1  Singers  and  Songs  of  the  Liberal  Faith. 


WOMEN  POETS.  237 

"  Is  there  a  lone  and  dreary  hour, 

When  worldly  pleasures  lose  their  power, 
My  Father,  let  me  turn  to  thee, 
And  set  each  thought  of  darkness  free." 

LOUISA  JANE  HALL,  daughter  of  John  Park,  M.D., 
was  born  in  Newbtiryport,  Mass.,  Feb.  2,  1802.  She 
began  to  publish  poems  at  the  age  of  twenty,  at  first 
anonymously.  "  Miriam,"  a  fine  drama  in  verse,  was 
published  in  1827.  She  was  married,  Oct.  1,  1840,  to 
Rev.  Edward  B.  Hall.  A  volume  of  her  writings, 
entitled  "  Verse  and  Prose,"  was  published  in  1850. 

SARAH  E.  MILES  was  born  March  28,  1807,  in 
Boston,  Mass.  Her  father  was  Nathaniel  W.  Appleton. 
She  married  in  1833,  Solomon  P.  Miles,  who  was  then 
principal  of  the  Boston  High  School.  She  resided  in 
or  near  Boston  till  recently,  when  she  removed  to  Brat- 
tleboro',  Vt.  "  The  few  of  her  hymns  or  poems  which 
have  been  published  were  sent  to  the  printer  by  her 
father,  who  did  not  fail  to  discover  their  rare  merit : 
they  were  mostly  composed  while  she  was  at  a  very 
early  age."  Two  of  her  hymns  are  familiar  and  favor- 
ites, one  commencing,  — 

"  Thou  who  didst  stoop  below." 

The  other,  — 

"  The  earth  all  light  and  loveliness." 

ALMIRA  SEYMOUR  of  Hingham,  Mass.,  long  and 
favorably  known  as  a  teacher  in  Boston,  has  written 
hymns  and  poems  for  various  occasions  which  entitle 
her  to  be  numbered  among  the  women  poets  of  :he 
century. 

ANNE  MILES,  born  in  Salem,  Mass.,  on  the  second 
•day  of  February,  1803,  has  penned  poems  of  great 
beauty  and  power,  hymns  and  songs  for  various  occa- 
sions, descriptive  pieces  and  commemorative  verses  that 


238  "WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

have  been  much  prized  in  the  hour  of  their  special 
use,  and  have  delighted  stranger  eyes  when  they  have 
appeared  in  print.  Her  three  daughters  have  become 
successful  teachers,  but  only  one  of  them,  — 

ELLEN  E.  MILES,  has  inherited  her  mother's  poetic 
talent.  Her  verses  have  appeared  in  "  The  Liberal 
Christian,"  "  The  Woman's  Journal,"  "  Voice  of 
Peace,"  and  in  the  various  newspapers  of  the  towns 
where  they  have  been  sung  or  recited  by  choirs  or 
pupils. 

PHEBE  A.  HANAFORD  has  written  very  many  fugi- 
tive stanzas  for  all  sorts  of  occasions,  grave  and  gay, 
most  of  which  found  their  way  into  print,  though, 
according  to  the  opinion  of  the  writer  of  this  volume, 
they  were  not  equally  worthy  of  publication.  She  has 
twice  delivered  the  poem  at  the  annual  commencement 
at  Westbrook  Seminary,  Maine,  and  once  at  the  Com- 
mencement of  Buchtel  College,  Ohio.  In  1865  the  pub- 
lisher of  this  volume  issued  a  small  volume,  entitled 
"  The  Martyred  President,  and  other  Poems,"  from  her 
pen  ;  and  in  1870,  a  much  larger  one,  entitled  "  From 
Shore  to  Shore,  and  other  Poems." 

MABY  W.  HALE  of  Boston,  born  Jan.  28,  1810. 
Baptized  by  Dr.  Kirldand,  whom  she  afterward  com- 
memorated in  verse.  A  teacher  for  many  years  in 
Boston,  Keene  (N.H.),  Wellfleet  (Cape  Cod),  Newton 
and  Taunton  (Mass.),  and  Bristol  (R.I.).  She  died  Nov. 
17,  1862,  and  her  remains  lie  in  Mount  Auburn.  A 
fine  sketch  of  her  is  to  be  found  in  Dr.  Putnam's 
excellent  book  on  "Singers  and  Songs.'  In  1840  a 
volume  of  her  "  Poems  "  was  published  by  Ticknor  in 
Boston. 

FRANCES  M.  CHESBEO,  born  in  Warwick,  Mass.,  July 
13,  1824  (the  sister  of  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo),  has  written 


WOMEN   POETS.  289 

numerous  hymns  and  poems,  published  mainly  in  Uni- 
tarian periodicals.  She  published  a  story-book  for  chil- 
dren in  1858,  entitled  **  Smiles  and  Tears." 

MARTHA  PERKY  LOWE  was  born  at  Keene,  N.H., 
Nov.  21,  1829.  She  married  the  sainted  Rev.  Charles 
Lowe  in  1857,  and  not  long  after  "  published  a  volume 
of  poems,  entitled  'The  Olive  and  the  Pine,'  the 
words  being  typical  of  scenes  in  Spain  and  New  Eng- 
land, which  she  contrasted  in  her  verses.  Several 
years  afterward  she  published  a  second  volume,  *  Love 
in  Spain,  and  other  Poems,'  containing  a  lyric  drama 
of  diplomatic  and  social  life  in  that  country  [which 
she  visited  before  her  marriage],  and  also  some  pieces 
that  had  appeared  from  time  to  time  during  the  late 
war  in  our  own  land.  In  1871  she  accompanied  her 
husband  and  two  children  to  Europe,  where  she  corre- 
sponded regularly  with  'The  Liberal  Christian,'  on 
subjects  that  were  connected  with  the  advancement  of 
a  broader  religious  faith  in  the  Old  World.  She  re- 
turned to  America  with  her  family  in  1873,  and  now 
lives  in  Somerville,  Mass." 1 

ELIZABETH  LLOYD  HOWELL  wrote  a  poem  entitled 
"  Milton's  Prayer  of  Patience,"  so  excellent  and  apt 
that  many  have  believed  it  composed  by  Milton  himself, 
till  informed  as  to  its  authorship.  It  commences,  — 

"  I  am  old  and  blind ; 

Men  point  at  me  as  smitten  by  God's  frown ; 
Afflicted  and  deserted  by  my  kind, 
Yet  am  I  not  cast  down." 

This  lady  is  said  to  be  a  Philadelphia  Quaker.  It  is 
certain  she  is  a  Christian  poet.  Her  poem  "  Watch  '* 
has  no  equal  in  its  line,  where  she  teaches  that, — 

1  Singers  and  Songs. 


240  WOMEN    OF   THE    CENTURY. 

"  The  captive's  oar  may  pause  upon  the  galley, 
The  soldier  sleep  beneath  his  plumed  crest, 
And  Peace  may  fold  her  wings  o'er  hill  and  valley, 
But  thou,  O  Christian  !  must  not  take  thy  rest." 

CBLIA  THAXTER  is  a  poet  for  whom  the  writer  of 
this  volume  once  heard  Charlotte  Cushman,  in  private 
conversation,  express  a  preference  that  was  high  praise 
from  such  a  source.  Underwood  says,  "Mrs  Celia 
Thaxter  was  born  in  Portsmouth,  N.H.,  June  29,  1835. 
She  passed  the  greater  part  of  her  early  life  upon  the 
Isles  of  Shoals,  a  rocky  group  about  ten  miles  distant 
from  the  main  land.  She  published  in  the  '  Atlantic 
Monthly,'  in  1867-8,  a  series  of  papers  upon  these 
islands  which  were  of  exceptional  interest  and  value. 
.  .  .  An  examination  of  her  poems,  recently  published 
(1872),  showed  that  the  elements  of  strength  and 
beauty  in  her  prose  were  retained,  and  even  heightened, 
in  her  verse.  The  range  of  the  poems  is  confined  to 
the  sea  and  its  shores.  ...  On  the  solitary  coast,  in 
view  of  the  sea,  with  its  changeful  skies,  its  distant 
ships,  and  its  white-winged  sea-birds,  she  is  emphati- 
cally the  most  picturesque  of  poets  and  subtilest  of 
ideal  colorists.  Her  verses  have  the  very  swing  of  the 
sea.  As  we  read  we  feel  its  cool  breath,  we  perceive 
its  delicate  scent,  and  we  hear  the  ripple  of  the  waves 
and  the  soft  note  on  the  pebbly  beach."  * 

ROSE  TERRY  was  born  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  Feb.  17, 
1827.  She  is  now  the  wife  of  Rollin  Cooke.  "  She 
published  a  volume  of  poems  in  1861,  which  evince  a 
delicate  sense  of  the  beautiful  in  nature,  a  tender  and 
rather  melancholy  feeling,  and  a  sweet  and  melodious 
style  of  versification."  2 

1  Handbook  of  American  Authors,  p.  660. 

2  Ibid. 


WOMEN   POETS.  _  241 

"  JULIA  H.  SCOTT  was  born  in  1809,  in  the  northern 
part  of  Pennsylvania.  Her  maiden  name  was  Kinney. 
She  began  to  write  verses  when  she  was  very  young, 
and  her  first  pieces  were  published  when  she  was  little 
more  than  sixteen.  ...  In  1835  she  was  married  to 
Dr.  David  L.  Scott  of  Towanda,  where  she  died  in 
1842.  Her  poems,  together  with  a  biography  of  the 
writer  by  Miss  S.  C.  Edgarton,  were  published  in  1843. 
Her  songs  are  those  of  the  household,  full  of  gentle 
and  feminine  feeling  and  tender  pathos." l 

ANN  MARIA  WELLS  was  born  in  Gloucester,  Mass., 
in  1797.  Her  name  was  originally  Foster.  She  wrote 
when  young,  but  published  little  till  after  her  marriage. 
In  1830  she  published  a  small  volume  of  "  Poems  and 
Juvenile  Sketches." 

MARY  MARIA  CHASE,  born  in  Chatham,  N.Y.,  Aug. 
12,  1822.  She  studied  at  the  Albany  Seminary, 
edited  there  "  The  Monthly  Rose,"  and  in  1845  won 
two  gold  medals  for  a  poem  and  a  moral  tale.  In 
1846  she  received  a  gold  medal  from  the  same  Alumnae 
Association  for  a  prize  essay  on  flowers.  In  1846  she 
accepted  the  charge  of  the  composition  department  in 
Brooklyn  Female  Academy,  but  on  account  of  illness 
resigned.  In  a  charming  volume  edited  by  Henry 
Fowler,  called  "  Mary  M.  Chase  and  her  Writings," 
\ve  are  told  that  "  Mary's  poetical  genius  was  early 
manifested.  When  she  was  eight  years  old,  her 
teacher,  residing  in  the  family,  discovered  one  of  her 
poems  on  *  The  Three  Da}-s'  Revolution  in  France,' 
\vhich  he  deemed  extraordinary,  and  with  a  pardonable 
zeal  sent  it  to  a  city  newspaper.  When  a  copy  came 
back,  she  detected  her  production  in  the  '  poet's  corner,' 
flushed  deeply,  and  burst  into  tears.  For  years  after, 

1  Mrs.  Bale's  Woman's  Record. 


-4ii  WOMEN   OP   THE   CENT  UK  Y. 

it  was  impossible  to  get  a  sight  at  her  compositions, 
although  she  wrote  much ;  and  this  early  piece  cannot 
be  found."  She  was  almost  an  improvisatrice,  and 
the  record  of  her  life,  as  well  as  the  poems  and  letters 
the  volume  contains,  should  be  widely  read.  HANNAH 
F.  GOULD  was  born  in  Lancaster,  Vt. ;  but  she  spent 
most  of  her  life  in  Newburyport,  Mass.,  where  she  died 
in  1865.  Her  father  was  a  Revolutionary  soldier ;  and 
in  her  poems,  "  The  Scar  of  Lexington,"  "  The  Revolu- 
tionary Soldier's  Request,"  and  "  The  Veteran  and  the 
Child,"  she  probably  referred  to  him.  Her  poems  are 
mostly  brief:  they  were  written  for  periodicals  first, 
and  were  published  in  successive  volumes  in  1832, 
1835,  1841,  and  1850.  Her  poems  "  Jack  Frost,"  "  A 
Name  in  the  Sand,"  and  "  The  Pearl  Diver,"  are  well 
known,  and  will  always  be  favorites. 

ANNA  GAEDNER  of  Nantueket,  Mass.,  has  written 
many  exquisite  poems  for  "  The  Commonwealth,"  "  The 
Anti-Slavery  Standard,"  and  other  papers. 

MART  STARBUCK  COFFIN  of  the  same  island,  the 
daughter  of  David  and  Phebe  Starbuck,  wrote  many 
excellent  poems.  Both  these  ladies  are  descended 
from  Peter  Folger,  the  grandfather  of  Dr.  Franklin, 
who  was  possessed  of  much  poetic  ability,  which  has 
cropped  out  in  every  generation  which  has  succeeded 
him,  and  almost  in  every  branch  of  his  large  family  of 
descendants.  MARIA  MITCHELL  and  her  sister  ANNE 
M.  MACY,  who  are  also  of  this  descent,  possess  the 
rhyming  ability,  as  the  book  "Seaweeds  from  the 
Shores  of  Nantucket "  shows.  Several  others  who 
contributed  to  that  volume  have  the  same  Folger  blood 
in  their  veins.  ELIZABETH  STARBUCK,  nSe  Swain,  has 
written  many  acceptable  poems  for  various  occasions 
and  the  local  press;  the  same  may  be  said  of  ELIZA 


WOMEN   POETS.  243 

BARNEY,  HANNAH  M.  ROBINSON,  MARGARET  PERKY 
YALE,  and  others  to  whom  the  gift  of  poesy  has  been 
a  joy  for  themselves  and  their  readers. 

KATHARINE  A.  WARE  was  born  in  Quincy,  Mass., 
in  1797.  Her  maiden  name  was  Rhodes.  Among  her 
poems  was  one  addressed  to  Lafayette,  and  presented 
to  him  at  his  reception  in  Boston  by  her  eldest  child, 
then  five  years  old ;  and  another,  in  honor  of  Gov. 
Clinton,  was  recited  at  the  Great  Canal  celebration  in 
New  York.  She  published  "  The  Bower  of  Taste  " 
for  several  years.  In  1889  went  to  Europe,  and  died  in 
Paris  in  1843.  Shortly  before  her  death  she  published 
her  book,  "  The  Power  of  the  Passions,  and  other 
Poems." 

LYDIA  M.  CHILD,  though  more  widely  known  by 
her  prose  writings,  is  also  a  poet.  Had  she  written 
nothing  but  "  Marius,"  we  would  call  her  such.  Most 
of  her  poems  are  in  a  small  book  called  "  The  Coronal." 

FRANCES  H.  GREEN,  born  in  Southfield,  R.I.,  has 
written  poems  said  to  be  "  original  and  ingenious." 
ELIZABETH  M.  CHANDLER  was  born  24th  of  December, 
1807,  in  Delaware.  Her  father  was  a  Quaker,  and  the 
influence  of  his  principles  may  be  seen  in  her  works. 
She  received,  when  only  eighteen  years  old,  a  prize  from 
the  editors  of  "  The  Casket,"  for  a  poem  called  "  The 
Slave-Ship."  Her  poems,  together  with  a  Memoir,  and 
some  of  her  essays,  were  published  in  Philadelphia  in 
1836. 

LTJCRETIA  MARIA  and  MARGARET  MILLER  DAVID- 
SON were  sisters  and  poets.  Their  mother,  MARGARET 
M.  DAVIDSON,  was  also  possessed  of  poetical  ability. 
Both  sisters,  when  very  young,  wrote  marvellously 
excellent  poetry.  The  eldest  died  when  in  her  seven- 
teenth year,  the  youngest  in  her  sixteenth ;  each  having 


244  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUBY. 

written  poems  equalling  those  of  many  other  poets  writ- 
ten during  a  long  life-time.  The  Memoirs  of  these  sis- 
ters, and  a  volume  of  their  mother's  poems,  have  been 
published  and  widely  read.  From  them  the  reader  is 
advised  to  find  further  information  concerning  these 
prodigies. 

ELIZABETH  OAKES  SMITH  was  born  in  1806,  in  Port- 
land, Me.,  and  was  married  when  but  sixteen  to  Seba 
Smith,  a  poet  and  political  writer  and  editor.  She  has 
written  many  songs  and  sketches  as  well  as  poems. 
But  her  book  "  The  Sinless  Child,  and  other  Poems," 
has  proved  her  genius.  She  still  lives  and  writes  with 
vigor  and  taste. 

ELIZABETH  F.  ELLET,  so  well  known  for  her  prose 
writings,  is  also  a  poet.  Griswold  gives  several  pages 
of  her  originals  and  translations  in  his  "  Female  Poets 
of  America." 

ANNA  PEYRE  DINNIES  of  South  Carolina  published, 
in  1846,  a  richly  illustrated  volume,  entitled  "The 
Floral  Year."  Griswold  says,  "  Her  pieces  celebrating 
the  domestic  affections  are  marked  by  unusual  grace 
and  tenderness ;  and  some  of  them  are  worthy  of  the 
most  elegant  poets." 

SARAH  Louis  P.  SMITH,  nSe  Hickman,  born  in 
Detroit,  June  30,  1811.  Married,  in  her  eighteenth 
year,  Samuel  Jenks  Smith,  editor  in  Providence,  where 
he  published  a  collection  of  her  poems  in  a  volume  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  pages,  many  of  which  poems 
were  written  while  it  was  passing  through  the  press. 
She  died  in  February,  1832. 

SOPHIA  HELEN  OLIVER,  born  in  Lexington,  Ky.,  in 
1811.  She  married  Dr.  J.  H.  Oliver  in  1837.  In  1842 
went  to  reside  permanently  in  Cincinnati.  Her  poems 
are  spirited  and  fanciful. 


WOMEN    POETS.  245 

CAROLINE  M.  SAWYER,  nee  Fisher,  was  born  in  1812, 
in  Newton,  Mass.  A  fine  sketch  of  her  is  published  in 
the  Universalist  "  Ladies'  Repository."  Griswold  says, 
"  She  commenced  the  composition  of  verse  at  an  early 
age,  but  published  little  till  after  her  marriage.  Since 
then  she  has  written  much  for  various  reviews  and 
other  miscellanies,  besides  several  volumes  of  tales, 
sketches,  and  essays.  .  .  .  She  has  also  made  numerous 
translations  from  the  best  German  literature,  hi  prose 
and  verse,  in  which  she  has  evinced  a  delicate  appre- 
ciation of  the  original,  and  a  fine  command  of  her 
native  language.  The  poems  of  Mrs.  Sawyer  are 
numerous,  sufficient  for  several  volumes,  though  there 
has  been  published  no  collection  of  them.  They  are 
serious,  and  of  a  fresh  and  vigorous  cast  of  thought, 
occasionally  embodied  in  forms  of  the  imagination,  or 
illustrated  by  a  chaste  and  elegant  fancy."  MAR- 
GARET L.  BAILEY,  daughter  of  Rev.  Thomas  Shancls, 
born  in  Sussex  County,  Va.,  Dec.  12,  1812,  married  at 
the  West,  in  1833,  G.  Bailey,  jun.,  subsequently  editor  of 
Cincinnati  papers,  and  then  of  "  The  National  Era,"  in 
which  papers  her  poems  appeared.  "They  have  less 
individuality  than  her  prose,  but  they  are  informed 
with  fancy  and  a  just  understanding."  l 

LAURA  M.  HAWLEY,  afterward  Mrs.  Thurston 
(born  1812,  died  1842)  was  a  native  of  Norfolk,  Conn. 
Under  the  signature  of  "  Viola,"  Mrs.  Thurston  had 
made  herself  known  by  many  productions  marked  by 
feeling  and  a  melodious  versification,  which  were  for 
the  most  part  published  in  "  The  Louisville  Journal." 
She  died  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  where  she  taught  many 
years. 

ANNA  CHARLOTTE  BOTTA,  a  native  of  Bennington, 

1  Female  Poets  of  Ainerica. 


246  WOMEN  OP  THE   CENTURY. 

Vt.,  was  a  student  at  a  popular  young  ladies'  school  in 
Albany,  where  her  writings  first  attracted  attention. 
She  afterwards  wrote  much  in  prose  and  verse.  "  The 
poems  of  Mrs.  Botta  are  marked  by  depth  of  feeling, 
and  grace  of  expression."  ^ 

EMILY  C.  JUDSON  was  a  poet,  as  already  mentioned. 
Her  volume  is  entitled,  "  An  Olio  of  Domestic  Verses." 

"  ELIZABETH  J.  EAMES,  whose  maiden  name  was 
Jessup,  is  a  native  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  her 
early  years  were  passed  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson. 
In  1837  she  was  married  to  Mr.  W.  S.  Eames,  and  re- 
moved to  New  Hartford,  near  Utica,  where  she  has 
since  resided."  So  says  Griswold,  and  tells  us  also 
that  her  poems  have  appeared  in  "  The  Tribune,"  "  Gra- 
ham's Magazine,"  and  "  The  Southern  Literary  Messen- 
ger." 

MABGAEET  FULLEE,  Marchioness  D'Ossoli,  known 
better  as  a  prose  writer,  also  wrote  in  rhyme. 

EVELINE  SHEEMAN  SMITH,  born  1823,  in  New  York 
State,  published  in  1847  a  volume  entitled,  "  The 
Fairy's  Search,  and  other  Poems.'" 

LYDIA  JANE  PIEESON,  a  native  of  Middletown, 
Conn.,  has  published  two  volumes  of  poems,  "  Forest 
Leaves "  in  1845,  and  "  The  Forest  Minstrel "  in 
1847. 

JANE  T.  WOETHINGTON,  nSe  Lomax,  died  1847, 
wrote  poems  mainly  for  "  The  Southern  Literary  Mes- 
senger," said  to  be  "  simple,  graceful,  and  earnest." 

SAEAH  ANNA  LEWIS  (born  1824)  was  educated  at 
Mrs.  Willard's  school  in  Troy.  She  was  a  native  of 
Baltimore,  but  removed  to  Brooklyn  upon  her  mar- 
riage. Her  volume,  "  Recofds  of  the  Heart,"  was  pub- 
lished in  New  York,  in  1844.  The  principal  poems  are 
long ;  and  one  of  the  minor  poems,  "  The  Forsaken," 


WOMEN  POETS.  247 

was  said  by  Edgar  A.  Poe  to  be  "  inexpressibly  beau- 
tiful." Her  second  volume  was  called  "  The  Child  of 
the  Sea,  and  other  Poems." 

ANNA  CORA  MOWATT  RITCHIE,  better  known  as  an 
actress  and  reader,  wrote  poems  and  dramas,  mostly 
brief  and  fugitive. 

MARY  NOEL  MEIGS,  in  1845  published  an  octavo 
volume,  entitled  "  Poems  by  M.  N.  M,"  and  has  since 
written  many  poems  and  prose  essays  for  magazines, 
and  volumes  of  stories  for  children.  She  was  a 
Bleeuker,  belonging  to  the  distinguished  New  York 
family  of  that  name. 

FRANCES  SARGENT  OSGOOD,  a  native  of  Boston,  the 
daughter  of  Joseph  Locke,  born  "1812,  passed  her 
earlier  life  in  Hingham,  a  village  of  peculiar  beauty, 
well  calculated  to  arouse  the  dormant  poetry  of  the 
soul ;  and  here,  even  in  childhood,  she  became  noted 
for  her  poetical  powers."  l  Her  poems  were  published 
in  1839,  under  the  title  of  "  A  Wreath  of  Wild  Fowers 
from  New  England."  Mrs.  Lydia  Maria  Child  was 
one  of  the  first  to  perceive  the  merit  of  her  poetry,  and 
invited  the  young  poet  to  write  for  a  Miscellany  she 
was  then  editing.  In  1849  she  passed  on  to  a  higher 
life,  leaving  many  friends  and  a  holy  memory.  Her 
poems  meet  responsive  echoes  in  many  hearts,  espe- 
cially the  one  on  "  Labor," 

"  Work,  and  pure  slumbers  shall  wait  on  thy  pillow; 
"Work,  thou  shall  ride  over  care's  coming  billow. 
Lie  not  down  wearied  'neath  woe's  weeping  willow  : 
Work  with  a  stout  heart  and  resolute  will." 

LUCY  HOOPER  was  born  in  Newburyport,  Mass., 
Feb.  4,  1816,  and  died  in  Brooklyn,  N.Y.,  Aug.  1, 1841. 

1  Griswold's  Female  Poets  of  America. 


248  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

She  wrote  for  years  over  her  initials  only.  In  1840  she 
published  an  essay  on  "  Domestic  Happiness,"  and  a 
volume  entitled  "Scenes  from  Real  Life,"  and  about 
the  same  time  wrote  "  The  Lost  Hours  of  a  Gay 
Poetess,"  a  poem  which  has  sometimes  been  referred 
to  as  an  illustration  of  her  own  history.  Her  health 
from  childhood  was  precarious,  and  she  suffered  for 
many  years ;  but  nothing  hindered  her  studies  and 
the  compositions  which  were  a  labor  of  love.  Whittier 
wrote  a  beautiful  poem  in  her  memory.  In  1842  Mr. 
John  Keese  collected  and  arrranged  "  The  Literary 
Remains  of  Miss  Hooper,"  with  a  memoir  ;  and  in  1848 
an  enlarged  edition  of  her  poetical  works  appeared. 

SARAH  EDGARTON  MAYO,  already  mentioned  among 
literary  women,  was  a  poetic  as  well  as  prose  writer. 
"  Besides  her  numerous  contributions  to  '  The  New 
Yorker,'  '  The  New  World,'  *  The  Tribune,'  '  The 
Knickerbocker,'  and  other  periodicals,  she  published, 
in  the  ten  years  from  1838  to  1848,  *  The  Palfreys/ 
'  Ellen  Clifford,  or  the  Genius  of  Reform,'  4  The 
Poetry  of  Woman,'  '  Spring  Flowers,'  '  Memoir  and 
Poems  of  Mrs.  Julia  H.  Scott,'  'The  Flower  Vase,' 
'Fables  of  Flora,'  and  'The  Floral  Fortune  Teller.' 
These  are  small  volumes,  and  two  or  three  of  them 
consist  in  part  of  extracts  ;  but  they  are  all  illustrative 
of  a  delicate  apprehension  of  beauty  and  truth.  She 
died  on  July  9,  1848."  * 

SARAH  S.  JACOBS,  daughter  of  Rev.  Bela  Jacobs, 
was  born  in  Rhode  Island.  "  Her  poems  are  serious 
and  fanciful,  and  evince  cultivation  and  taste." 

ANNA  E.  APPLETON  has  written  poems  for  young 
and  old.  Her  translations  of  French  and  German  poems 
show  rare  poetic  taste,  and  power  of  versification. 

1  GrLswold's  Female  Poets  of  America. 


WOMEN   POETS.  249 

SUSAN  ARCHER  TALLEY,  of  Virginia,  lost  her  hear- 
ing at  the  age  of  nine,  but  continued  her  studies ;  and 
in  her  fifteenth  year  her  father  discovered  a  manuscript 
volume  which  showed  her  poetic  ability.  From  that 
time  she  was  encouraged  to  write  for  the  press.  When 
she  was  about  seventeen,  some  of  her  poems  appeared 
in  "  The  Southern  Literary  Messenger." 

REBECCA  S.  NICHOLS,  nee  REED,  published  a  volume 
in  1844,  entitled  "  Bernice,  or  the  Curse  of  Minna, 
and  other  Poems."  She  was  a  native  of  Greenwich, 
N.J. 

AMELIA  B.  WELBY,  born  in  1821  in  Maryland,  died 
in  1852.  She  wrote  early  poems  under  signature  of 
"  Amelia."  In  1844  a  collection  o£  her  poems  ap- 
peared in  a  small  octavo  volume  at  Boston,  which 
reached  several  editions. 

But  the  chapter  must  close  without  the  names  of 
some,  or  any  facts  in  reference  to  HARRIET  McEwEN 
KIMBALL,  KATE  PUTNAM  OSGOOD,  EMMA  LAZARUS, 
ELIZABETH  STODDARD,  and  others  who  may  be  men- 
tioned in  other  parts  of  this  volume.  Many  who  are 
mentioned  as  prose  writers,  or  in  the  professions,  have 
also,  like  HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE,  written  excellent 
poetry.  Reluctantly  the  list  is  here  closed,  with  the 
comforting  thought,  expressed  by  Longfellow,  that, 
whether  widely  known  or  not,  all  were  ordained  to 

write  in  the  musical  flow  of  rhyme  and  rhythm. 

• 

"  God  sent  his  singers  upon  earth 
With  songs  of  sadness  and  of  mirth, 
That  they  might  touch  the  hearts  of  men, 
And  bring  them  back  to  heaven  again." 


CHAPTER  IX. 


WOMEN-SCIENTISTS. 

Maria  Mitchell  —  Grace  Anna  Lewis  —  Sarah  Hackett  Stevenson  — 
Ann  Maria  Redfield  —  Lydia  F.  Fowler  — Elizabeth  C.  Agassiz  — 
Antoinette  Brown  Blackwell,  and  others. 

"  Resolves  for  this  the  dear,  engaging  dame 
Should  shine  forever  in  the  rolls  of  fame ; 
And  bids  her  crown  among  the  stars  be  placed, 
And  with  an  eternal  constellation  graced ; 
The  golden  circlet  mounts;  and,  as  it  flies. 
Its  diamonds  twinkle  in  the  distant  skies." 

"  The  works  of  the  Lord  are  great,  sought  out  of  all  them  that  have  pleasure 
therein."  —  PSALM  cxi.  2. 

SCIENCE  knows  no  sex.  The  lover  of  science  may 
be  man  or  woman  ;  but  the  love  is  the  same,  the 
toil  is  similar,  the  rewards  which  appertain  naturally 
are  not  different,  though  the  conventional  gain  may  be 
less  with  one  sex  than  the  other.  For  many  years  it 
was  supposed  that  woman  could  not  be  a  genuine  stu- 
dent, and  had  no  capacity  for  science,  if  she  had  for 
literature.  One  who  has  written  books  men  may  be 


WOMEN-SCIENTISTS.  25] 

proud  to  understand  says,  "  I  have  realized  in  my  in- 
most soul  that  most  subtle  outlawry  of  the  feminine 
intellect,  which  warns  it  off  from  the  highest  fields  of 
human  research."  l  But  she  has  done  much  already  to 
disprove  the  wisdom  and  righteousness  of  such  ostra- 
cism. And  other  women  there  are  who  have  wooed 
fair  Science,  and  won  her  favor.  Science  promotes  lon- 
gevity ;  certainly  the  pursuit  of  science  does  not  short- 
en human  life,  —  the  life  of  woman  or  of  man.  "  The 
apparent  physical  strength  of  such  women  as  Mrs.  Som- 
erville,"  says  Rev.  Mrs.  Blackwell,  writing  in  1875, 
"who  lived  to  write  science  and  philosophy  at  ninety 
years,  is  at  least  encouraging.  Among  living  wome.xi 
there  are  Miss  Martineau,  Frances  Power  Cobbe, 
and  many  other  robust  women  of  eminent  mental 
attainments,  in  England.  In  America,  Mrs.  Child, 
Catherine  Beecher,  Miss  Cushman,  Prof.  Maria  Mitch- 
ell, Drs.  Elizabeth  and  Emily  Blackwell,  Mary  L.  Booth, 
Grace  Greenwood,  and  the  host  of  women  who  have 
done  the  largest  share  of  brain-work  in  every  direction 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  past,  the  majority  of  them, 
have  health  much  above  the  standard  rates.  They  lead 
us  to  hope  that  if  they  would  condescend  to  give  in 
their  '  woman's  testimony,'  according  to  good  old-fash- 
ioned Quaker  precedent,  they  would  generally  agree 
substantially  in  the  opinion  that  reasonable  brain-work 
habitually  performed  can  have  no  inherent  tendency  to 
undermine  the  feminine  constitution."  The  time  is 
fast  approaching,  when  the  question  of  sex  will  not  be 
mentioned  in  relation  to  brain-work.  Already  Harriet 
Martineau's  works  on  political  economy  have  been 
authority  with  male  students ;  and  the  wife  of  Prof. 
Fawcett  of  England  is  to-day  furnishing  Harvard  Col- 

1  S«x«s  Uiruughoiit.  Nature,  by  Antoinette  Browii  Blackwell. 


252  WOMEN  OF   THB   CENTURY. 

lege  with  a  manual  of  political  economy.  It  is  time  to 
stop  sneering,  and  to  show  a  due  respect  to  scientific 
and  literary  attainment,  regardless  of  color,  clime,  or 
sex,  acknowledging  the  kindred  fact  that  scientists  are 
cosmopolitan,  and  that  with  them  knowledge  is  renown 
as  well  as  power. 

America  is  younger  than  Europe  and  Asia ;  but  this 
Republic  has  women  belonging  to  her  first  century 
whose  names  will  live  forever  among  the  votaries  of 
science.  If  Benjamin  Franklin  readied  out  his  hand  to 
the  clouds,  his  relative  Maria  Mitchell  has  reached 
hers  to  the  stars  ;  and,  if  he  recorded  wise  sayings,  his 
other  relative  Lydia  Fowler  has  penned  wholesome 
truths  and  scientific  facts,  both  being  lovers  of  science 
and  of  mankind.  Limited  space  in  this  book  failed  to 
encourage  extensive  research  concerning  the  biography 
of  each  woman-scientist ;  and  therefore  the  record  is 
meagre  in  some  instances,  —  more  so  than  those  women 
deserve,  or  the  writer  could  desire. 

MARIA  MITCHELL  is  first  mentioned,  for  she  stands 
at  the  head  of  the  list  of  scientific  women  in  America. 
Mrs.  Hale  says,  ""Maria  Mitchell  is  the  daughter  of 
William  and  Lydia  C.  Mitchell,  descendants  of  the 
earlier  settlers  of  Nantucket  Island^  in  the  State  of 
Massachusetts,  and  members  of  the  society  of  Friends, 
or  Quakers.  Mrs.  Mitchell  (and  the  father  also)  de- 
scended from  the  same  stock  with  Dr.  Franklin,  whose 
mother  was  from  this  island ;  and  it  is  quite  remarkable, 
that  throughout  this  family  lineage  are  to  be  traced 
some  of  those  traits  of  character  which,  in  full  measure, 
marked  the  character  and  history  of  that  distinguished 
philosopher.  The  mother  of  Miss  Mitchell  was  much 
distinguished,  in  her  youth,  for  her  fondness  for  books. 
Of  these  parents,  Miss  Maria  was  the  third  child,  born 


WOMEN-SCIENTISTS.  255 

Aug.  1,  1818.  .  .  .  From  her  mother  and  an  excellent 
preceptress,  she  received  the  first  rudiments  of  her  edu- 
cation, and  at  the  age  of  eleven  entered  her  father's 
school,  alternately  as  student  and  assistant  teacher. 
To  the  study  and  practice  of  astronomy  her  father  was 
a  devotee.  .  .  .  Later  in  life,  he  became  possessed  of 
instruments,  and  engaged  in  practical  operations ;  and 
Miss  Maria,  who  had  already  distinguished  herself  in 
mathematical  learning,  was  employed  as  assistant  in  the 
observatory. 

"  The  onerous  duties  of  a  mere  assistant  in  an  estab- 
lishment of  this  kind  are  scarcely  calculated  to  attach 
one  to  the  employment:  yet  Miss  Mitchell  'was  en- 
amoured of  the  prospect  of  observing  by  herself,  and 
commenced  her  career  by  obtaining  altitudes  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  for  the  determination  of  the  local  time. 
The  instrument  thus  used  was  the  sextant,  one  of  the 
most  difficult  of  the  observatory.  Mastering  this,  she 
engaged  in  the  study  of  the  science ;  and,  familiarizing 
herself  with  all  the  instruments,  she  became  skilful  in 
their  use.  From  this  period  she  pursued  with  zeal  the 
study  of  the  firmament,  devoting  much  time  to  the 
examination  of  nebulae,  and  sweeping  for  comets,  often 
exposing  herself  to  the  elements  in  the  most  inclement 
seasons.  Nothing  can  exceed  her  diligence  and  in- 
dustry. ...  On  the  1st  of  October,  1847,  she  discov- 
ered a  telescopic  comet,  for  which  she  obtained  the  gold 
medal  of  the  King  of  Denmark ;  an  interesting  account 
of  which  has  been  written  by  Hon.  Edward  Everett, 
late  president  of  Harvard  University. 

"  Miss  Mitchell  calculated  the  elements  of  this  comet, 
and  communicated  a  memoir  on  the  subject  to  the 
Smithsonian  Institute.  She  was  for  some  time  engaged 
with  her  father  in  making  the  necessary  astronomical 


256  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

observations  for  the  mensuration  of  an  arc  of  the 
meridian  between  Nantucket  and  Portland,  in  the  em- 
ployment of  Dr.  Bache,  of  the  Coast  Survey.  At  the 
invitation  of  the  superintendent,  she  also  made  some 
observations  at  the  northern  extremity  of  this  arc. 
She  was  also  engaged  in  the  computations  of  the  new 
Nautical  Almanac,  authorized  by  the  Government  of 
the  United  States,  and  under  the  superintendence 
of  Lieut.  Davis.  Amidst  all  these  employments,  she 
finds  time  to  read  many  of  the  French  and  German 
mathematical  writers,  and  to  keep  up  with  the  lit- 
erature of  the  day.  She  has  been  elected  a  member  of 
the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  the  only 
lady  having  that  honor;  and  subsequently,  on  nomi- 
nation of  Prof.  Agassiz,  a  member  of  the  American 
Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Science."  The  honor 
conferred  by  the  King  of  Denmark  on  this  woman  of 
science  was  the  more  distinguished,  from  the  fact  that 
she  had  competitors  in  the  Old  World,  of  high  astro- 
nomical rank,  whom  she  distanced  by  her  discovery. 

Miss  Mitchell  is  now  professor  of  astronomy  and 
director  of  the  observatory  in  Vassar  College,  and  has 
been  the  pride  of  that  institution  for  the  past  ten  or 
eleven  years,  —  a  blessing  to  the  pupils,  and  highly 
esteemed  among  her  fellow-teachers.  She  is  the  second 
president,  and  for  the  second  year,  of  the  association 
for  the  advancement  of  woman,  popularly  known  as 
"  The  Woman's  Congress."  Besides  her  scientific  at- 
tainments, Prof.  Mitchell  has  written  sprightly  articles 
(one  on  "  Mary  Somerville,"  in  the  "Atlantic  Monthly") 
for  some  of  the  literary  periodicals,  and  more  scientific 
communications  for  the  scientific  ones.  She  has  also 
lectured  acceptably  on  astronomical  subjects  before  the 
Boston  «*  Woman's  Club,"  and  in  other  places.  Rutgers 


WOMEN-SCIENTISTS.  259 

Female  College  conferred  upon  her  the  honorary  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Philosophy.1  She  has  twice  visited  Europe, 
and  added  the  culture  of  foreign  travel  to  scientific 
study  at  home.  While  abroad  she  paid  particular 
attention  to  the  provision  for  the  higher  education  of 
girls  in  Girton  College  and  elsewhere,  and  reported  by 
voice  and  pen  on  her  return.  She  is  one  of  the  women 
whom  her  American  sisters  delight  to  honor.  Long 
may  she  live  to  scan  the  midnight  heavens,  and  win  the 
trophies  of  science,  while  stars  blaze  and  planets  burn  !  — 

"And  oft,  before  tempestuous  winds  arise, 
The  seeming  stars  fall  headlong'from  the  skies, 
And,  shooting  through  the  darkness,  gild  the  night 
"With  sweeping  glories  and  long  trails  of  light."2 

GEACE  ANNA  LEWIS,  another  descendant  of  the 
Quakers,  is  to  be  numbered  with  our  women-scientists. 
"  The  Woman's  Journal "  for  June,  18,  1870,  contains 
this  paragraph :  "  The  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences, 
in  Philadelphia,  has  just  elected  three  ladies  to  the 
honors  of  membership.  A  month  ago,  when  these  can- 
didates were  proposed,  they  were  rejected.  But  last 
week  the  vote  was  reconsidered,  and  they  were  tri- 
umphantly chosen ;  the  figures  standing  forty-five  to 
five.  The  victors  in  this  peaceful  battle  are  three  inter^ 
esting  maidens,  —  Grace  Anna  Lewis,  Hannah  T.  Small- 
wood,  and  Ella  Homer.  Miss  Lewis  is  an  ornithologist ; 
Miss  Homer,  a  mineralogist ;  and  Miss  Smallwood,  an 
artist  in  scientific  diagrams.  So  the  good  cause  goes 
forward." 

The  writer's  first  knowledge  of  Miss  Lewis  was  in 

1  Hanover  College,  Indiana,  has  conferred  on  her  the  degree  of  LL.  D. 

3  "  Saepe  etiam  Stellas  vento  impendente  videbis 
Praccipites  ccelo  labi ;  noctisque  per  umbram 
Flammarum  longos  a  tenjo  albescere  tractus."  — VIKOII.. 


260  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

connection  with  the  publication  of  her  book,  "  Natural 
History  of  Birds :  Lectures  on  Ornithology."  This 
was  to  have  been  published  in  ten  parts  ;  but  the  series 
has  never  yet  been  concluded,  to  the  regret  of  every 
lover  of  science  who  has  seen  the  commencement. 
Not  alone  an  observer  or  student,  Miss  Lewis  has  also 
a  capacity  for  profound  theorizing  on  the  basis  of  scien- 
tific apprehension.  To  her  mind  the  truths  of  science 
seem  revealed.  As  the  old  Quaker  preachers  sensed 
the  spirit  of  their  audiences,  so  she  can  sense  the 
scientific  truths  which  lie  so  close  to  the  moral ;  and 
the  book  of  nature  is  an  unsealed  and  illuminated 
volume  to  her.  In  a  private  letter  to  the  writer,  Miss 
Lewis  once  wrote :  — 

"  I  suppose  you  wish  to  know  what  led  me  to  the 
study  of  natural  history.  I  think  I  learned  the  love 
of  it  from  my  mother ;  at  least,  I  never  remember  a 
time  when  she  did  not  cultivate  in  her  children  a  taste 
for  it.  Early  left  a  widow,  and  cherishing  for  her 
husband  a  love  which  was  never  expressed  in  words, 
she  sought  to  mould  the  minds  left  to  her  charge  on 
the  model  loveliest  to  her  soul.  Mere  infants  when  he 
died,  we  were  women  before  our  mother  could  trust 
herself  to  speak  of  our  father.  Naturally  our  thoughts 
of  this  unseen  parent  mingled  with  our  reverence  for 
the  Author  of  all  created  things ;  and  thus,  I  think,  was 
laid  the  foundation  for  a  lover  of  nature. 

"  Later  in  life,  it  was  my  privilege  to  be  the  chosen 
friend  of  the  sister  of  a  naturalist,  herself  the  author 
of  a  little  book  for  children,  '  Life  in  the  Insect  World.' 
Eighteen  years  ago  she  bade  farewell  to  earth ;  and, 
after  a  long  period,  I  wished  for  a  study  kindred  to 
hers.  I  occupied  the  leisure  of  a  country  home  in 
observing  the  birds  winch  visited  us,  and  dreamed  of 


WOMEN-SCIENTISTS.  261 

preparing  a  little  work  as  a  companion  to  that  of  my 
friend. 

"  '  Nuttall  on  Birds  '  was  soon  exhausted.  '  Cassin, 
Baird,  and  Lawrence,'  was  thrown  in  my  way  by  acci- 
dent. This  was  an  event.  The  book  was  my  best 
help ;  in  fact,  it  was  all  I  needed  at  the  time.  By  its 
aid  I  could  identify  the  species,  and  their  habits  I 
observed  for  myself.  Years  passed  in  this  manner. 
My  studies  seldom  interfered  with  household  avocations. 
Gardening,  walks,  or  rides,  connected  with  business  or 
pleasure,  afforded  me  occasion  for  after-study.  One 
book  would  contain  references  to  many  others ;  and,  as 
opportunity  afforded,  the  available  ones  were  secured, 
cabinets  were  examined,  friends  kindly  sent  specimens ; 
for,  as  you  have  doubtless  found,  it  is  the  tendency  of 
a  nucleus  to  gather  to  itself. 

"  At  the  time  I  was  ripe  for  it,  I  think  in  1862,  a 
friend  procured  me  an  introduction  to  John  Cassin, 
Vice-President  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences, 
Philadelphia.  From  hence  I  date  my  blessing.  I  had 
found  a  MASTEE,  and,  as  time  proved  to  me,  one  who 
knew  also  how  to  be  one  of  the  best  of  friends.  From 
that  day  I  needed  no  facilities  of  study  which  he  could 
procure  me. 

"  His  business  or  his  family  cares  never  made  him  in- 
accessible. There  were  always  hours  when  I  could 
apply  to  him.  The  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  was 
opened  to  me.  My  table  there  was  filled  to  overflow- 
ing with  books  of  his  selection ;  the  rriuseum,  with  its 
thousands  of  specimens,  could  be  referred  to ;  but 
most  valuable  of  all  was  the  personal  instruction  which, 
in  his  leisure,  he  gave  with  a  generosity  akin  to 
pleasure. 

-"  Walking  in   the  genial  warmth  of  such  a  presence, 


262  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTUBY. 

I  forgot  to  fear  it  niiglit  fade  away.  May  le,  who 
could  never  have  known  the  extent  of  his  benefaction, 
understand  it  now  in  the  fullest  sense !  He  never 
seemed  to  think  it  strange  a  woman  should  wish  to 
study,  and  I  did  not  either.  He  had  knowledge,  I  had 
not ;  and  he  rejoiced  in  imparting  it  to  me. 

"When  a  lady  once  thanked  me  because  of  the 
support  I  was  giving  to  woman,  it  was  really  the  first 
time  I  had  ever  thought  of  the  matter  in  that  light. 
I  studied  because  I  wished  to  find  the  truth.  I  am 
writing  because  there  seems  to  be  need  of  just  such  a 
work." 

This  was  in  1867.  Later  Miss  Lewis  has  commenced 
to  lecture  on  her  favorite  topics,  and  in  a  letter  to  the 
writer  says,  "  I  feel  that  my  life's  work  is  before  me, 
in  lecturing  on  zoology  to  girls  just  blooming  into 
womanhood ;  the  inspiration  being  a  desire  to  cultivate 
in  them  a  faith  in  God,  and  in  his  superintending  provi- 
dence, which  cannot  be  swept  away.  This,  too,  is  in 
reality  the  superstructure  on  which  my  book  rests, 
philosophy  and  religion  being  in  my  view  so  intimately 
blended  that  neither  can  be  wisely  separated  from  the 
other.  I  am  perhaps  an  enthusiast  in  the  study  of 
natural  history ;  but  it  is  an  enthusiasm  which  draws 
its  nourishment  from  the  centre  of  being.  I  love  nature 
because  it  teaches  me  better  to  comprehend  its  Author." 
Miss  Lewis  is  still  a  resident  of  Philadelphia.  As  an 
ornithologist  she  would  probably  enjoy  the  sight  of  a 
woman's  unique  contribution  to  the  Centennial  Expo- 
sition, though  the  exhibitor  perhaps  may  not  be  a  scien- 
tific seeker  of  birds. 

Mrs.  SAHAH  E.  BONNEY,  of  Sterling,  Mass.,  the  only 
contributor  from  the  town  to  the  Centennial  Exhibition, 
has  two  cases  of  goods,  which  will  attract  great  atten- 


WOMEN-SCIENTISTS.  263 

tion  if  their  history  is  known.  One  case  contains 
twenty-five  choice  birds  of  all  varieties,  from  a  hum- 
ming-bird to  an  owl,  which  were  all  shot  by  Mrs.  Bon- 
ney  herself,  and  stuffed,  and  mounted  on  an  imitation 
of  a  laurel-branch.  The  second  case  contains  several 
bird  fans,  with  wings  spread,  and  the  full-size  breast 
and  head  of  a  dove  in  the  centre  of  each  fan ;  also  a 
muff,  boa,  and  hat,  made  out  of  ducks'  feathers,  each 
feather  being  put  on  separately,  and  prepared  in  the 
most  delicate  way.  Mrs.  Bonney  has  prepared  these 
things  unaided ;  and  it  is  said  there  are  but  few  per- 
sons that  can  excel  her  in  the  use  of  a  gun.  The  birds 
are  all  tightly  wired  to  each  branch,  which  also  contains 
nests  with  eggs,  &c.  Two  smaller  birds  are  also  seen 
in  their  nests  in  the  hollow  part  of  the  branches. 
Many  of  them  are  of  a  very  bright  color. 

SAEAH  HACKETT  STEVENSON  made  a  valuable  con- 
tribution to  the  popular  scientific  literature,  especially 
for  the  young,  in  her  book  entitled  "  Boys  and  Girls  in 
Biology;  or,  Simple  Studies  of  the  Lower  Forms  of 
Life ; "  based  upon  the  latest  lectures  of  Prof.  T.  H. 
Huxley,  and  published  by  his  permission.  (The  inter- 
esting volume  is  illustrated  by  a  lady,  M.  J.  MACOM- 
ISH.)  Further  mention  of  the  scientific  woman  who 
has  made  good  use  of  her  opportunities  for  study,  and 
has  consecrated  such  a  portion  of  her  attainments  to  the 
youth  of  her  country,  will  be  given  in  the  chapter  on 
Women  Physicians. 

MARY  M.  CHASE  (though  she  would  hardly  have 
numbered  herself  among  the  women  of  science)  was  a 
lover  of  botany.  Her  biographer  says,  "  During  the 
summer  of  1849  she  made  a  collection  of  most  of  the 
flowers  growing  in  this  region  [Chatham  County,  N.Y.], 
comprising  some  three  hundred  varieties,  put  up  with 


264  WOMEN   OF   THE   CEKTUBY. 

skill  and  taste  in  three  portfolios,  and  accompanied  with 
a  description  of  each,  arranged  in  an  essay  of  fifty  pages. 
These  were  sent  to  the  World's  Exhibition  at  London, 
and  returned  with  gratifying  testimonials." 

SARAH  E.  SMITH,  whose  modesty  might  forbid  even 
the  mention  of  her  name,  has  been  placed  among  women 
scientists,  by  a  Boston  teacher,  Louise  S.  Hotchkiss,1  in 
this  manner :  "  Waltham  is  composed  of  one  long, 
broad  street ;  one  beautiful  river,  the  Charles ;  and  one 
beautiful  mountain,  Prospect.  This  is  Waltham  to 
pleasure-seekers ;  to  men  and  women  of  business,  it  is  a 
busy,  manufacturing,  money-making  town ;  for  the  stu- 
dent, it  has  its  intellectual  hermits  and  retreats.  It  was 
for  one  of  these  hermit  homes  that  I  made  my  way 
directly  this  afternoon,  and  knocked  at  a  low  door  of  a 
little  old-fashioned  house,  its  windows  vineclad  without, 
and  fern  and  moss  clad  within.  A  gentle  step  ap- 
proached the  door,  and  a  light  hand  raised  the  latch. 
A  figure  as  graceful  as  a  willow,  a  sweet,  intellectual 
face,  a  voice  of  perfect  culture,  a  single  woman  past 
middle  age,  the  finest  botanist  and  linguist  in  the  State, 
I  may  say  in  any  State,  was  before  me,  and  bade  me 
enter.  We  walked  into  a  low  room,  only  two  windows, 
every  ray  of  light  from  which  is  used  in  the  growth  of 
some  choice  lichen  or  plant.  What  a  student's  nook 
was  this !  Here  were  shells  and  minerals  all  classified 
by  a  scholarly  hand ;  here  were  the  most  exquisitely 
arranged  mosses  and  ferns  of  every  domestic  and  for- 
eign species,  on  cards,  pressed,  and  growing ;  here  was 
the  student's  desk,  piles  of  books,  one  open  and  a  mark 
laid  just  where  the  lady  had  left  it ;  here  were  pictures 
on  the  low  wall,  of  learned  faces,  and  lovely  Madonna 
faces ;  here  were  schoolbooks  belonging  to  the  young 

1  Woman's  Journal  for  1872,  p.  314. 


WOMEN-SCIENTISTS.  265 

girls  who  came  to  recite ;  here  was  a  telescope  and 
microscopes  which  accompany  the  teacher  and  pupils  in 
their  rambles  day  and  evening.  The  graceful  figure 
bends  over  a  table  of  moss  ;  and  the  quiet  hand  lifts  a 
tuft  to  show  me  a  very  rare  sight, — the  fruiting  of  a 
species  she  has  never  known  to  fruit  in  any  New  Eng- 
land State  before.  How  radiant  grows  the  face  over 
this  success  in  developing  and  perfecting  this  tiny  spray 
of  moss ! " 

The  "Woman's  Journal"  of  Sept.  14, 1872,  mentions 
another  woman-scientist  thus:  "At  a  meeting  of  the 

American  Science  Association  in  New  York,  Miss 

Swain  read  a  paper  entitled,  '  Why  we  differ ;  or,  The 
Law  of  Variety.'  Miss  Swain  is  the  first  lady  who  has 
ever  addressed  this  body.  She  handled  her  subject 
very  judiciously.  By  well  chosen  illustrations  from  the 
animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms,  she  showed  that  excess 
on  one  side  and  defect  on  the  other,  in  the  same 
qualities  or  properties,  is  the  cause  of  difference ;  in 
other  words,  that  all  distinction  is  relative,  and  pro- 
ceeds by  infinite  gradations.  Men  and  women  differ 
not  in  elemental  composition,  but  in  the  proportions  of 
their  common  qualities." 

Mrs.  Ellet  mentions  "a  lady  residing  in  Syracuse, 
N.  Y.,  whose  social  influence  has  been  salutary  and 
widely  acknowledged.  Mrs.  Redfield  (Ann  Maria 
rreadwell)  is  not  only  noted  for  position,  but  known 
as  the  author  of  a  popular  work,  '  Zoological  Science ; 
or,  Nature  in  Living  Forms,'  —  a  book  commended  by 
Prof.  Agassiz  as  one  that  would  '  do  great  credit  to  a 
majority  of  college  professors  in  this  department.'  She 
came  of  distinguished  family.  Her  grandfather  devoted 
his  entire  fortune  and  best  energies  to  the  support 
of  American  independence  in  the  great  struggle  for 


266  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

nationality,  and  served  his  country  i  i  Congress  during 
its  first  sessions ;  while  her  father  obtained  distinction 
by  his  military  services  in  the  war  of  1812."  Mrs. 
Redfield  was  educated  at  the  school  of  Mrs.  Willard  at 
Troy. 

EMMA  WILLAED  herself  may  be  numbered  among 
the  women-scientists  when  it  is  remembered  that  she 
wrote  a  work  entitled  "A  Treatise  on  the  Motive- 
Powers  which  produce  the  Circulation  of  the  Blood." 
Mrs.  Hale  says  that  this  work  was  the  result  of  four- 
teen years'  study,  and  that  its  object  was  to  "  introduce 
and  establish  the  fact,  that  the  principal  motive-power 
which  produces  circulation  of  the  blood  is  not,  as  has 
been  heretofore  supposed,  the  heart's  action,  that  being 
only  secondary ;  but  that  the  principal  motive-power  is 
respiration,  operating  by  animal  heat,  and  producing 
an  effective  force  at  the  lungs."  Of  tins  work,  "  The 
London  Critic "  said  in  1846,  "  We  have  here  an 
instance  of  a  woman  undertaking  to  discuss  a  subject 
that  has  perplexed  and  baffled  the  ingenuity  of  the  most 
distinguished  anatomists  and  physiologists  who  have 
considered  it,  from  Hervey  down  to  Paxton ;  and,  what 
is  more  remarkable,  so  acquitting  herself  as  to  show 
that  she  apprehended,  as  well  as  the  best  of  them, 
the  difficulties  which  beset  the  inquiry;  perceived  as 
quickly  as  they  did  the  errors  and  incongruities  of  the 
theories  of  previous  writers;  and  lastly,  herself  pro- 
pounded an  hypothesis  to  account  for  the  circulation 
of  the  blood,  and  the  heart's  action,  eminently  entitled 
to  the  serious  attention  and  examination  of  all  who 
take  an  interest  in  physiological  science." 

ALMIEA  H.  LINCOLN  PHELPS,  the  sister  of  Mrs.  Wil- 
lard, was  also  interested  in  science.  The  first  work  she 
ever  published  was,  in  1829,  a  large  botany.  Mrs.  Hale 


WOMEN-SCIENTISTS.  267 

says,  "  Few  scientific  books  have  liad  a  more  general 
circulation  than  this  ;  and  for  the  last  twenty  years  it 
has  kept  its  place  as  the  principal  botanical  class-book, 
notwithstanding  numerous  competitors.  Her  next  work 
was  a  '  Dictionary  of  Chemistry,'  which,  though  it  pur- 
ported to  be  a  translation  from  the  French,  contains 
much,  in  the  form  of  notes  and  an  appendix,  that  ia 
original.  With  the  learned,  this  work  gave  the  author 
great  credit,  as  it  evinced  much  research  and  a  thor- 
ough knowledge  of  the  science  which  it  illustrated." 
Her  Botany  and  Chemistry  for  Beginners  were  also 
widely  circulated  and  very  useful.  The  first  book 
which  the  writer  of  this  volume  ever  purchased  with 
her  own  money  —  a  child's  hoard  —  was  this  "  Botany 
for  Beginners ; "  and  it  was  one  of  the  few  books  saved 
from  the  great  lire  of  1846  in  Nantucket,  and  will  never 
pass  from  her  possession  till  she  has  no  longer  need  of 
books.  Mrs.  Hale  says,  "  It  was  for  her  pupils  that  her 
scientific  works  were  prepared.  No  woman  in  America, 
nor  any  in  Europe  excepting  Mrs.  Marcet  and  Mrs. 
Somerville,  has  made  such  useful  and  numerous  con- 
tributions to  the  stock  of  available  scientific  knowledge 
as  Mrs.  Phelps :  yet  had  she  hot  been  a  teacher,  and 
found  the  need  of  such  works,  it  is  very  doubtful 
whether  she  would  have  prepared  them." 

MARGARET  COXE,  the  principal  of  a  seminary  for 
young  ladies  in  Cincinnati,  wrote  "  Botany  of  the 
Scriptures,"  and  "  Wonders  of  the  Deep,"  which  were 
calculated  to  instruct  young  readers,  and  awaken  a  love 
of  science.  LYDIA  F.  FOWLER,  the  daughter  of  Gideon 
Folger  of  Nantucket,  and  thus  a  descendant  of  Peter 
Folger,  the  grandfather  of  Dr.  Franklin,  was  early 
a  teacher  on  her  native  island,  then  married  L.  N. 
Fowler,  the  celebrated  phrenologist,  and  has  since  be- 


268  WOMEN   OP  THE  OENTHBY. 

come  famed  herself  as  a  writer,  lecturer,  and  physician. 
She  is  now  practising  her  profession  with  great  success 
in  England.  The  book  which  leads  to  the  mention  of 
her  name  among  women-scientists  is  a  little  work  on 
astronomy,  published  in  New  York  City  about  a  quarter 
of  u  century  ago. 

MAKY  TREAT  should  be  mentioned  as  one  whose 
interesting  articles  on  microscopic  observations  of 
various  objects,  published  in  the  "  New  York  Tribune," 
the  "  Popular  Science  Monthly,"  &c.,  have  won  the 
approbation  of  lovers  of  science. 

HELEN  S.  CONANT  has  furnished  young  readers  with 
a  valuable  introduction  to  the  study  of  entomology  in 
her  book,  "  The  Butterfly  Hunters,"  published  in  1868. 

FANNY  I.  BUEGE  SMITH  has  furnished  for  young 
readers,  "  Our  Birds,"  published  by  the  American  Tract 
Society,  who  in  publishing  also  "  Frank's  Search  for  Sea- 
Shells,"  and  a  smaller  volume  called  "  Land  Shells,"  by 
the  same  author,  whose  name  is  not  given,  have  done 
the  world  of  boys  and  girls  good  service. 

ANTOINETTE  BROWN  BLACKWELL,  who  will  be 
mentioned  more  fully  elsewhere,  has  added  to  the 
scientist's  library  two  valuable  books,  "  Sexes  Through- 
out Nature,"  and  "  Studies  in  General  Science."  With 
a  pleasant  memory  of  her  brother's  (Rev.  William  B. 
Brown,  of  Newark,  N.  J.)  extensive  cabinet  of  shells, 
and  an  acknowledgment  of  his  superior  attainments  as  a 
conchologist,  the  writer  is  inclined  to  expect  yet  more 
from  the  pen  of  Mrs.  Blackwell,  in  days  to  come,  of 
a  scientific  character,  not  unmingled  with  the  lofty 
utterances  of  Christian  philosophy.  Mrs.  P.  V.  HATH- 
AWAY exhibits  at  the  Centennial  Exposition,  in  two 
cases  of  great  interest  to  botanists,  an  herbarium  of 
grapes,  wild  flowers,  ferns,  and  the  blcssoms  of  shrubs, 


WOMEN-SCIENTISTS.  269 

constituting  the  native  flora  of  Illinois ;  JENNIE  WAT- 
SON has  prepared  North  American  mosses  for  exhibition 
there  also,  dried  and  neatly  arranged  on  cards.  Two 
women  of  the  century  who  are  interested  in  botanical 
science ! 

It  is  certainly  proper  to  mention  the  name  of  ELIZA- 
BETH C.  AGASSIZ  as  one  who  has  assisted  largely  by 
her  sympathy  and  personal  aid  in  the  scientific  dis- 
coveries and  explorations  of  one  whose  name  she  bears, 
and  whom  America  adopted  and  honored.  She  is  a 
Boston  lady,  and  wrote  the  text  of  a  book  called 
"  Seaside  Studies  in  Natural  History,"  published  over 
her  name  and  that  of  her  son  Alexander  Agassiz.  The 
marine  animals  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  especially  the 
radiates,  are  described  in  this  volume,  which  was 
published  with  the  hope  of  furnishing  a  seaside  book  of 
a  popular  character.  It  is  evidently  the  first  one  of  a 
series  which,  it  is  hoped,  will  some  day  be  issued  in 
full. 

MBS.  EBMINNIE  A.  SMITH,  nee  Platt,  hns  one  of  the 
finest  cabinets  of  fossils,  shells,  gems,  Indian  articles, 
etc.,  in  the  country.  Among  its  treasures  is  a  piece  of 
amber  containing  a  small  lizard.  Mrs.  Smith  is  a  native 
of  New  York  State,  and  was  a  pupil  of  Mrs.  Emma  Wil- 
lard.  She  early  manifested  an  interest  in  scientific  mat- 
ters, studied  for  four  years  in  the  School  of  Mines  at 
Freyburg,  Germany,  is  a  member  of  the  New  York 
Academy  of  Sciences,  and  a  Fellow  of  the  American  As- 
sociation for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  She  lectures 
at  times  upon  "  Gems,"  etc.,  has  had  published  several 
papers  on  "  Amber,"  etc.,  and,  in  connection  with  the 
Bureau  of  Ethnology  of  the  Smithsonian  Institute,  she 
"  has  undertaken  to  prepare  a  series  of  chrestomathics  of 
the  Iroquois  language,  and  has  already  made  much  prog- 


270  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

ress.  She  has  also  collected  interesting  material  relating 
to  the  mythology,  habits,  customs,  etc.,  of  these  Indians ; 
and  her  contributions  will  be  interesting  and  important." 
So  says  the  Report  of  the  Bureau  Director,  Major 
Powell. 

With  a  sense  of  the  incompleteness  of  this  record, 
yet  glad  and  grateful  for  the  work  of  the  women  men- 
tioned, this  chapter  is  closed  with  the  full  assurance 
that  there  are  many  scientific  women  in  other  pro- 
fessions, and  many  students  of  natural  history  in  our 
country,  who,  like  MARIA  L.  OwEN,1  find  "  tongues  in 
the  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks,  sermons  in 
stones,  and  good  in  every  thing,"  and  in  quiet  ways 
help  others  to  the  beautiful  study  of  God's  wonderful 
works. 

1  Formerly  the  writer's  teacher  in  Nantucket ;  now  a  resident  of 
Springfield,  Mass. 


CHAPTER    X. 

WOMEN  ARTISTS. 

Harriet  Hosmer  —  Emma  Stebbins  —  Eliza  Greatorex  —  Lily  M.  Spen- 
cer—Margaret Foley  — May  Alcott  —  Emily  Sartain— Mary  B. 
Mellen,  and  others. 

"  Art  is  wondrous  long; 
Yet  to  the  wise  her  paths  are  ever  fair, 
And  Patience  smiles,  though  Genius  may  despair." 
O.  W.  HOLMES. 

"  Give  her  of  the  fruit  of  her  hands,  and  let  her  own  works  praise  her  in  th« 
gates."  —  PKOV.  xxxi.  31. 

"TTTOMAN  has  succeeded  in  art ;  not  in  the  earlier 
W  centuries  perhaps,  when  the  freedom  of  Chris- 
tianity was  not  known ;  but  ever  since  she  has  been 
progressing  in  the  appreciation  and  practice  of  that 
art  which  creates  or  embalms  the  beautiful.  The 
Romans  had  one  woman  painter,  we  are  told ;  and  she 
is  said  to  be  of  Greek  origin.  Her  name  was  LAYA. 

Germany  produced  the  first  woman  sculptor,  —  SA- 
BINA  VON  STEINBACH.  Mrs.  Ellet  has  traced  the  work 
of  women  as  artists;  and  her  volume  is  most  cordially 
recommended  to  all  who  would  know  what  woman  has 
achieved  in  other  ages  and  other  lands.  "  Women 


272  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

Artists "  is  a  book  of  which  it  may  be  said,  it  is  as 
useful  as  unique.  England  thought  so,  and  therefore 
a  London  publisher  reprinted  it.  But  it  first  appeared 
from  the  press  of  the  Harpers.  Another  New  York 
firm,  Kurd  and  Houghton,  has  done  lovers  of  art  good 
service  in  publishing  "  A  Handbook  of  Legendary  and 
Mythological  Art,"  by  another  woman,  CLARA  ERLSKINE 
CLEMENT.  In  this  chapter  mention  can  only  be  made 
of  American  artists,  and  that  briefly.  The  mother 
of  Benjamin  West  deserves  honorable  mention  for  the 
encouragement  her  kiss  gave  to  her  son  when  he  had 
sketched  the  picture  of  his  infant  sister ;  but  many 
other  mothers,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  have  given 
similar  help  and  encouragement  to  their  children. 
Many,  by  cherishing  a  love  of  the  beautiful,  have 
secured  a  pre-natal  influence  for  their  children,  which 
has  afterwards  developed  into  artistic  skill  and  genius. 

Mrs.  Ellet  mentions  the  names  of  ROSALBA  TORRENS, 
ELIZA  TORRENS,  MARY  MURRAY,  and  Madame  PLAN- 
TEAU,  as  painters ;  also  Mrs.  LUPTON  as  a  modeller,  as 
well  as  painter.  She  speaks  of  CHARLOTTE  DEMTNG, 
JANE  SULLY,  and  a  Miss  O'HARA,  as  artists  of  merit; 
and  adds,  "Mrs.  GOODRICH  of  Boston  painted  an 
excellent  portrait  of  Gilbert  Stuart,  which  was  engraved 
by  Durand  for  the  National  Portrait  Gallery.  Her 
miniatures  have  great  merit,  and  are  marked  by  truth 
and  expression. 

"  MARGARET  FOLEY  was  a  member  of  the  New  Eng- 
land School  of  Design,  and  gave  instruction  in  drawing 
and  painting.  She  resided  in  Lowell,  and  was  fre- 
quently applied  to  for  her  cameos,  which  she  cut  beau- 
tifully. Miss  SARAH  MACKINTOSH  was  accustomed  to 
draw  on  stone  for  a  large  glass  company ;  and  other 
ladies  designed  in  the  carpet  factory  at  Lowell,  and  in 


WOMEN   ARTISTS.  273 

the  Merrimack  Print  Works,  showing  the  ability  of 
women  to  engage  in  such  occupations."  Mrs.  Ellet 
devotes  several  pages  to  an  interesting  account  of 
ANNA  C.  PEALE,  now  Mrs.  Duncan,  and  SARAH  M. 
PEALE  and  ROSALBA  PEALE,  her  sisters.  They,  and 
others  of  their  family,  were  portrait-painters ,  and  in 
that  part  of  the  century  when  the  sun  was  not  acknowl- 
edged as  an  artist,  and  photography  was  wholly  un- 
known, they  found  their  artistic  career  an  exceedingly 
busy  one,  and  quite  prosperous.  For  the  portraits 
of  children,  double  price  was  charged.  "  The  name  of 
Leslie  has  been  placed  by  a  painter  of  eminent  merit 
among  the  most  distinguished  of  this  century ;  and  his 
sister,  ANN  LESLIE,  has  contributed  to  its  fame." 
Mrs.  WILSON,  a  native  of  Cooperstown,  N.Y.,  but  a 
dweller  in  Cincinnati  when  Mrs.  Ellet  prepared  her 
volume.  "  A  gentleman  acquainted  with  Mrs.  Wilson 
mentioned  an  incident  that  occurred  on  a  journey  to 
the  Mammoth  Cave  of  Kentucky.  Struck  with  the 
aspect  of  a  distinguished  person  in  the  company, — 
Mr.  Emerson,  —  the  sculptress  gave  directions  to  stop 
near  a  bank  of  soft  red  clay,,  and,  putting  out  one 
hand  to  grasp  a  sufficient  portion  of  the  material,  with 
the  other  she  signed  to  her  subject  to  remain  motion- 
less. In  a  few  moments  she  had  modelled  a  very  cred- 
itable likeness  of  the  author." 

Mrs.  DUBOIS  of  New  York  showed  great  talent  for 
sculpture  and  cameo-cutting.  She  is  said  to  have  dis- 
covered her  ability  in  this  way :  "  Her  father  had  his 
bust  taken.  Before  the  casting,  he  asked  his  daughter 
her  opinion  of  it  as  a  likeness.  She  pointed  out  some 
defects,  which  the  artist  corrected  in  her  presence, 
upon  which  she  exclaimed,  'I  could  do  that,'  and 
requested  the  sculptor  to  give  her  some  clay,  from 


274  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

which  she  modelled  with  but  little  labor  the  bust  of 
her  husband,  and  was  eminently  successful  in  the  like- 
ness." She  afterwards  studied  in  Italy. 

ANNE  HALL  of  Pomfret,  Conn.,  the  daughter  of  a 
physician,  was  encouraged  by  her  father,  who  procured 
for  her  a  box  of  colors  from  China.  Visiting  in  New- 
port, R.I.,  she  studied  with  Samuel  King,  and  she  cop- 
ied from  the  old  masters  on  ivory  in  miniature.  She 
finally  came  to  excel  in  painting  portraits  thus.  "  The 
soft  colors  seem  breathed  on  the  ivory,  rather  than 
applied  with  the  brush.  A  miniature  group  often  sold 
for  five  hundred  dollars."  She  was  elected  unani- 
mously to  membership  in  the  National  Academy  of 
Design.  Mrs.  Ellet  says,  "  One  of  the  best  of  her  ori- 
ginal compositions  is  a  group  of  a  mother  and  child,  — 
Mrs.  Jay  and  her  infant.  The  first,  clasping  the  babe 
to  her  bosom,  has  a  Madonna-like  beauty ;  the  child  is 
perfect  in  attitude  and  expression.  Another  group  of  a 
mother  and  two  young  children,  the  widow  and  orphans 
of  the  late  Matthias  Bruen,  has  a  most  charming  ex- 
pression. One  of  the  children  was  painted  as  a  cherub 
in  a  separate  picture,  much  valued  by  artists  as  a  rare 
specimen  of  skill.  Miss  Hall  has  also  painted  the  por- 
traits in  miniature  of  many  persons  distinguished  in  the 
best  social  circles  of  New  York.  Several  of  her  groups 
have  been  copied  in  enamel  in  France,  and  thus  made 
indestructible.  Three  children  of  Mrs.  Ward,  with  a 
dog  and  bird ;  a  child  holding  a  grape-vine  branch  ; 
with  portraits  of  Mrs.  Crawford,  widow  of  the  sculptor, 
Mrs.  Divie  Bethune,  and  the  daughters  of  Gov.  King, 
—  may  be  mentioned  among  numerous  works,  a  single 
one  of  which  has  sufficient  merit  to  establish  the 
author's  claim  to  the  reputation  which  she  has  long 
enjoyed,  of  being  the  best  of  American  miniaturists." 


WOMEN  ARTISTS.  275 

MARY  SWINTON  LEGARE  (Mrs.  Bullen)  "had  a 
great-grandfather  and  two  grandfathers,  besides  other 
relatives,  in  the  patriot  army  of  the  Revolution,"  where 
youths  of  sixteen  and  eighteen  often  fought  beside  their 
grandsires.  She  was  a  native  of  South  Carolina,  and 
was  born  in  Charleston.  She  became  skilled  in  the 
delineation  of  animals  and  landscapes,  the  latter  en- 
gaging her  special  enthusiasm.  In  1849  she  removed 
to  Iowa»  There  she  established  "  Legar6  College,"  for 
the  liberal  education  of  women,  at  West  Point,  in  Lee 
County.  When  Mrs.  Ellet  wrote  of  her,  seventeen 
years  ago,  she  was  about  to  resume  her  pencil. 

At  the  same  time  Mrs.  Ellet  wrote  as  follows :  "  JANE 
STUART  was  the  youngest  child  of  Gilbert  Stuart,  the 
eminent  portrait-painter.  Like  many  of  her  sisters  in 
art,  she  inherited  the  genius  she  discovered  in  early 
life ;  but  it  was  not  till  after  her  father's  death  that  the 
talent  she  had  shown  found  development  in  the  prac- 
tice of  art.  She  has  resided  for  a  long  time  at  New- 
port, R.I.,  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  celebrity  her 
talents  have  acquired. 

"  Mrs.  HILDRETH  of  Boston  deserves  mention,  espe- 
cially for  her  portraits  of  children  in  crayon.  Miss 
MAY  painted  landscapes  in  Allston's  style.  Mrs.  ORVIS 
has  been  mentioned  as  a  flower-painter  of  remarkable 
skill.  Hoyt  remarked  that  he  knew  nothing  better  in 
coloring  than  her  autumn  leaves  and  wild  flowers.  IN 
this  style  Mrs.  BADGER  of  New  York  has  acquired 
reputation  by  her  book  of  '  The  Wild  Flowers  of 
America,'  published  in  1859.  The  drawings  were  all 
made  and  colored  from  nature  by  herself.  Mrs.  HAW- 
THORNE of  Boston  has  painted  many  beautiful  pieces. 
An  *  Endymion,'  which  was  greatly  admired,  she  pre- 
sented to  Mr.  Emerson.  She  also  modelled  the  hear? 


276  WOMEN  OP  THE   CENTURY. 

of  Laura  Bridgman.  Mrs.  HILL  is  a  highly  successful 
miniature-painter.  Mrs.  GREATOREX  is  a  landscape- 
painter  of  merit,  and  is  rapidly  acquiring  distinction." 
Since  Mrs.  Ellet  wrote  the  above,  so  man}*1  years  have 
passed,  that  some  of  these  ladies  may  have  passed  to 
the  other  life :  and  it  is  possible  that  some  of  them 
are  not  American  women;  for  Mrs.  Ellet  mentions 
among  others  Herminie  Dassel,  who  was  a  Prussian, 
but  came  to  America  in  1849,  and  was  a  successful 
painter.  The  Athenaeum  at  Nantucket  contains  her 
very  accurate  portrait  of  the  last  Indian  of  the  island, 
and  his  surroundings  in  his  hut.  A  more  interesting 
picture  still,  from  her  easel,  is  one  representing  the 
astronomers  William  and  Maria  Mitchell,  and  Kate, 
the  youngest  daughter  of  the  family,  noting  their 
observations.  This  is  as  good  a  description  of  the 
picture  as  memory  allows.  Mrs.  Dassel  died  in  1857, 
and  was  buried  in  Greenwood. 

A  writer,  in  speaking  of  "  Centennial  Art  Work,"  thus 
refers  to  one  of  the  artists  above  mentioned :  "  Mrs. 
Eliza  Greatorex,  who  has  won  fame  not  only  in  this 
country,  but  in  Europe,  stands  at  the  head,  among 
women,  of  etching  and  pen-and-ink  drawing.  Until 
her  husband's  death  she  studied  art  as  an  amateur, 
being  a  member  of  a  sketching-club,  and  working  with 
an  enthusiastic  love  of  the  work  ;  but  when  thirty-four 
years  of  age  her  husband  died,  and  she  was  left  with 
two  daughters  and  no  property.  Then,  with  the 
encouragement  and  aid  of  her  friends  of  the  club,  she 
began  in  earnest  to  use  her  gifts  and  knowledge  as 
a  means  of  support.  For  seventeen  years  she  taught 
drawing ;  fifteen  years  in  Miss  Maine's  school,  who 
gave  her  fullest  liberty  to  work  out  her  own  peculiar 
ideas  and  methods  of  teaching.  During  this  time  she 


WOMEN  ARTISTS.  277 

was  one  year  abroad,  studying  in  Paris  ;  and  again, 
three  years  ago,  she  spent  two  years  abroad  with  her 
daughters,  studying  with  them  in  Munich. 

She  now  has  in  hand  a  peculiar  work  for  the  centen- 
nial year.  She  has  secured  panels  and  woodwork  from 
the  old  historical  houses  and  churches  that  have  been 
or  are  being  torn  down,  working  with  her  daughter, 
who  decorates  the  panels  with  appropriate  designs : 
she  paints  or  sketches  in  the  centre,  using  for  her  theme 
some  historical  event  that  has  given  interest  to  the  build- 
ing. She  has  made  an  art-gallery  of  the  first  floor  of 
their  dwelling,  in  which  her  pictures  and  works  will  be 
for  exhibition  and  sale,  and  where  worshippers  of  the 
ancient  can  admire  and  buy  by  piecemeal  the  interior 
of  St.  Paul's,  the  pulpit  of  the  old  Fulton-street  Church, 
a  quantity  of  wood  from  the  old  Roger  Morris  house 
upon  Washington  Heights,  of  pre-Revolutionary  times, 
or  any  other  ancient  building  for  which  their  hearts 
may  hunger." 

A  New  York  newspaper  has  also  published  the  fol- 
lowing paragraph :  — 

"  Mrs.  Eliza  Greatorex,  recently  at  the  Association 
Building,  has  now  opened  a  studio  at  her  residence  in 
Twenty-third  Street,  where  she  is  at  present  teaching 
her  daughters  the  art  of  reproducing  etchings  on  plain 
glass.  These  young  ladies  have  received  a  thorough 
training  in  drawing,  but  as  yet  do  not  exhibit ;  Mrs. 
Greatorex,  with  a  feeling  that  does  her  infinite  honor, 
preferring  that  they  should  wait  until  their  works  can 
stand  on  their  own  merit,  and  not  through  the  influ- 
ence of  her  name.  Both  of  these  ladies  evince  talents 
of  a  high  order,  and  are  already  becoming  known  in  a 
quiet  way  in  art  circles." 

Mrs.  Greatorex  did  not  commence  her  career  as  an 


278  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTCJRY. 

artist  till  past  thirty.  Her  best-known  work  is  a  series 
of  drawings  from  many  of  the  old  landmarks  about  the 
city  of  New  York.  They  have  been  photographed,  and 
published  in  a  volume  called  "  Old  New  York." 

Women  have  shown  artistic  ability  in  carving  during 
our  first  century.  P.  Thorne,  in  writing  to  the  "  Chris- 
tian Register,"  April  17,  1876,  said,  "  Last  week  some 
pieces  of  wood-carving  done  by  young  ladies  of  Cincin- 
nati for  the  Centennial  were  on  exhibition  in  Mitchell 
&  Rammelsberg's  windows  on  Fourth  Street,  where 
they  attracted  many  admirers.  There  was  a  bedstead 
of  antique  pattern,  the  high  headboard  and  the  whole 
•woodwork  covered  with  fine  and  elaborate  carving  of 
delicate  designs  ;  also  a  shaving-stand,  and  what  may 
in  centennial  times  properly  be  called  a  '  chest  of 
drawers.'  The  two  Misses  Johnson  have  worked  six 
months  on  this  bedstead  alone.  One  room  in  the 
Women's  Centennial  Building  at  Philadelphia  is  to  be 
entirely  furnished  with  furniture  carved  by  the  ladies 
of  Cincinnati.  One  lady  is  doing  a  mantel-piece  in  a 
variety  of  woods,  said  to  be  very  beautiful  by  those 
who  have  seen  it.  Others  are  carving  an  organ-case,  a 
piano-case,  a  table,  &c.  The  ladies  of  Cincinnati  have 
contributed  five  thousand  dollars  towards  erecting  the 
Woman's  Centennial  Building,  and  have  still  some 
thousands  left,  to  be  used  in  forwarding  women's  work 
in  Philadelphia.  This  money  was  raised  at  the  Wo- 
man's Centennial  Fair  held  last  May.  From  the  first, 
the  Cincinnati  ladies  have  taken  an  active  interest  in 
the  Centennial.  Art-work  is  very  fashionable  here. 
Many  of  the  '  first '  ladies  go  regularly  to  the  School 
of  Design,  to  learn  carving,  painting,  &c.  An  unusual 
interest  in,  and  knowledge  of,  art  seems  to  be  diffused 
through  the  community.  Painting  china  teacups  and 


"WOMEN   ARTISTS.  279 

sets  is  another  popular  accomplishment,  each  lady 
designing  patterns  to  please  herself." 

An  artist  friend  speaks  to  the  writer  of  Miss  JESSIE 
CUKTIS  of  Brooklyn,  not  known  as  a  painter,  but 
deserving  of  notice  as  a  lady  of  much  genius,  who 
illustrated  Miss  Phelps's  "  Gates  Ajar."  Her  drawings 
are  remarkable  for  spirituality  and  grace ;  and  she  is 
especially  successful  in  her  delineation  of  children. 
Besides  many  book-illustrations,  she  has  drawn  for 
the  "  Graphic  "  and  other  New  York  weekly  publica- 
tions. 

Miss  Fidelia  Bridges  of  Brooklyn  is  a  painter  well 
known  for  her  faithful  and  charming  studies  of  bits  of 
out-door  nature.  Her  works  are  much  sought  and 
highly  prized  by  art-patrons ;  and  she  is  well  represented 
in  the  water-color  exhibit  at  Memorial  Hall,  Philadel- 
phia. Some  one  wrote  of  her  this  year  in  a  New  York 
paper,  — 

"Miss  BRIDGES  is  a  poet  as  well  as  a  painter,  and 
her  delicate  bits  of  canvas  are  faithful  mirrors  of 
Nature.  She  loves  the  cool,  gray  sands  of  the  sea- 
side, and  the  neglected  bits  of  landscapes.  The  birds 
she  introduces  into  many  of  her  pictures  are  exqui- 
sitely painted.  She  is  represented  in  the  Academy 
by  ' Blackberry  Bushes,'  'Marsh  Flowers,! '  The  Edge 
of  a  Pasture,'  *  Catkins,'  and  '  The  Mouth  of  a  River.'  " 

Miss  ELLEN  D.  HALE,  daughter  of  Rev.  Edward 
Everett  Hale  of  Boston,  is  a  young  artist  who  has 
painted  several  pictures  of  great  merit,  among  which 
may  be  mentioned  a  portrait  of  remarkable  excellence  ; 
also,  "  A  Boy  Reading,"  which  is  now  at  the  Centen- 
nial Exposition. 

Miss  ANNA  M.  LEA  is  a  very  fine  portrait-painter.  A 
correspondent  of  "  The  New  York  Herald  "  thus  wrote 


280  WOMEN  OF  THE  CEXTTJBY. 

of  her :  "  Miss  A.  M.  Lea  from  New  York,  now  a  stu- 
dent of  art  in  London,  has  achieved  a  success  and 
created  a  sensation  of  which  all  Americans  may  be 
proud.  Miss  Lea  came  to  England  some  three  years 
ago  quite  unheralded ;  but  at  once,  through  her  merit 
alone,  commanded  attention.  The  very  first  picture 
which  she  sent  to  the  Academy  was  accepted,  a  com- 
pliment which  has  seldom  been  paid  to  an  unknown 
artist,  even  among  those  who  have  afterward  gained 
high  distinction.  But  these  American  girls  have  a  way 
of  making  their  way  wherever  they  appear.  This 
year  Miss  Lea  contributes  three  pictures,  all  of  them 
of  unusual  beauty  and  power-;  so  remarkable,  indeed, 
that  we  can,  without  fear,  predict  that  this  young  artist 
has  a  great  career  before  her,  and  will  win  a  high  place 
in  the  temple  of  fame." 

Our  foremothers  in  the  far-off  Pilgrim  days  were 
artists  in  a  very  small  way  with  their  needles.  In 
Plymouth,  Mass.,  may  be  seen  a  piece  of  Pilgrim 
needlework,  embroidered  with  colored  silk,  now  sadly 
faded,  in  1655,  by  a  daughter  of  Capt.  Miles  Standish, 
and  bearing  this  devout  prayer  :  — 

"  Lorea  Standish  is  my  name. 
Lord,  guide  my  heart  that  I  may  doe  thy  will ; 
Also  fill  my  heart  with  such  convenient  skill, 
As  may  conduce  to  virtue,  void  of  shame,  — 
And  I  will  give  the  glory  to  thy  name." 

Samplers  are  not  worked  now  so  much  as  formerly  ; 
but  the  women  of  the  first  part  of  the  century  were 
wont  to  exhibit  their  artistic  ability  more  with  the 
needle,  and  with  colored  worsteds  or  silks,  than  with 
the  pencil.  They  were  in  the  habit  of  embroidering 
mnslin,  and  making  lace-work.  And  though  such 


WOMEN  ARTISTS.  281 

skill  may  not  be  artistic  in  one  sense,  it  is  in  another , 
and  it  is  a  fact,  doubtless,  that  the  children  of  mothers 
who  evinced  great  interest  and  skill  in  embroidery 
and  lace-work  have  received  an  inheritance  of  taste 
and  skill  which  have  made  them  artists  with  brush  and 
chisel. 

Mrs.  PARTHENIA  S.  POST  of  Jersey  City  possessed 
the  skill  above  mentioned,  was  a  perfect  artist  with  the 
needle  (as  an  embroidered  cape  and  collar  show,  which 
are  marvels  in  their  way),  and  her  daughter,  COR- 
NELIA S.  POST,  has  inherited  taste  and  skill  which 
have  enabled  her  to  make  pen-and-ink-sketches,  cray- 
on portraits,  water-color  and  oil  paintings,  with  great 
success,  and  to  engrave  on  wood.  Having  a  father  of 
superior  mathematical  ability,  and  inventive  genius 
also,1  no  wonder  that  the  culture  gained  in  the  New 
York  School  of  Design  and  elsewhere  was  not  in  vain. 
Miss  Post  has  designed  nearly  all  the  vignettes  in  this 
volume,  and  drawn  them  on  wood.  A  Boston  lady, 
Miss  Frances  A.  Smith,  has  engraved  them.  Miss 
Post  is  a  native  of  Montpelier,  Vt.,  but  is  of  New 
Hampshire  stock,  her  parents  being  from  Lebanon, 
N.H.  During  the  lifetime  of  her  father,  she  was  often 
a  valued  assistant  to  him,  drawing  and  engraving  dia- 
grams of  his  plans  for  bridges.  Crayon  portraits  of 
her  father  and  mother,  and  the  writer  of  this  volume, 
show  that  the  difficult  process  of  transferring  to  the 
canvas  "  the  human  face  divine "  is  one  of  the  gifts 
bestowed  by  Providence  upon  her ;  and,  if  the  posses- 
sion of  a  competency  did  not  keep  her  among  the 
amateur  artists,  her  genius,  shown  through  a  commen- 
surate industry,  would  give  her  high  place  among  those 
who  stand  before  the  easel,  and  transfer  the  beauty  of 
nature  to  the  canvas. 

1  8.  S.  Port,  an  inv*ntor  of  iron  bridges. 


282  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

"The  Liberal  Christian"  thus  speaks  of  another 
artist :  — 

"  Miss  MARY  HALLOCK,  who  illustrated  *  The  Hang- 
ing of  the  Crane  '  and  '  Mabel  Martin '  so  admirably, 
though  her  name  was  recently  changed  to  Mrs.  Foote, 
•uill  not  abandon  her  beautiful  art  in  her  California 
home.  Milton,  upon  the  Hudson,  Miss  Halleck's  home, 
had  been  the  inspiration  of  her  pictures,  her  Quaker 
relatives  appearing  in  several  of  her  figures;  but  still 
more  the  scenery  she  loved  has  been  sketched  with 
rare  fidelity  and  consummate  grace." 

"Miss  SARAH  CLARKE,  sister  of  Rev.  Dr.  James 
Freeman  Clarke,  has  for  several  years  resided  in  Rome, 
where,  by  her  gentle  courtesy  and  sparkling  vivacity, 
she  has  won  for  herself  a  large  circle  of  friends.  She 
has  an  artistic-looking  apartment  on  the  Via  Quattro 
Fontane,  overlooking  the  beautiful  grounds  of  the 
Barberini  Palace.  She  is  now  engaged  on  her  great 
work  on  Dante."  So  says  one  newspaper  writer ;  and 
another  adds,  "  The  Dante  drawings  of  Miss  Sarah 
Clarke  are  thus  spoken  of  by  Anne  Brewster  in  a  letter 
from  Rome :  *  The  contents  of  the  books  are  very 
charming,  —  large  pen-and-ink  drawings  of  places 
visited  by  Dante,  places  made  immortal  by  the  great 
Italian  poet.  All  these  drawings  have  been  made  with 
t^.e  greatest  care  from  studies  which  Miss  Clarke  exe- 
c  ted  on  the  ground.  She  has  traversed  Italy  as  a  true 
Dante  pilgrim  ;  and  these  two  beautiful  books,  unique 
and  rare  gems,  are  the  results  of  her  intelligent  labor.' 
Miss  Clarke,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  almost  the 
only  pupil  Washington  Allston  ever  had." 

IMOGENS  ROBINSON  MORELL  has  become  noted  for 
her  historical  paintings,  of  which  a  correspondent  of 
"  The  Boston  Journal "  said,  when  they  were  exhibited 


WOMEN  ARTISTS.  283 

there,  "They  are  spoken  of  in  terms  of  the  highest 
admiration  by  artists  and  art-critics,  both  at  home  and 
abroad.  They  are  the  result  of  long  years  of  study 
and  labor,  under  the  first  masters  in  France  and  Ger- 
many, and  show  great  genius,  inspired  by  patriotic 
enthusiasm.  .  .  .  The  composition  is  strictly  original 
in  all  its  details :  each  figure  and  every  animal  was 
painted  from  a  living  model,  after  the  strictest  rules  of 
genuine  art.  .  .  . 

"  No  one  should  lose  the  opportunity  of  seeing  these 
pictures.  The  children  of  our  families,  and,  indeed,  all 
our  schools,  should  be  taken  to  Amory  Hall  to  enjoy 
them,  and  to  hear  their  stories,  so  pleasantly  told,  — 
that  they  may  thus  have  impressed  on  their  minds  the 
fact  that  American  liberty  was  not  obtained  but  at  a 
mighty  cost. 

"  We  hear  that  Mrs.  Morrell  will  leave  Boston  very 
soon,  and  that  the  pictures  may  be  purchased  for  the 
Capitol  at  Washington.  If  this  shall  prove  true,  we 
only  wish  there  was  better  company  for  them  there  ! 
But  the  day  must  come  ere  long,  when  some  miserable 
daubs  that  deface  the  walls,  through  "  lobbying,"  and 
disgrace  good  pictures  there,  may  be  replaced  by  works 
of  real  art.  Such  Mrs.  Morrell's  are  pronounced  to  be, 
by  Mr.  Washburne,  our  Minister  to  France,  Gustavo 
Dord,  Isadore  and  Juliet  Bonheur,  Healy,  Merle,  and 
the  eminent  historical  painter,  Philippoteaux,  and 
scores  of  others  of  equal  standing. 

"  Of  pictures  which  draw  forth  the  praise  of  such 
men,  we,  as  Americans,  may  be  justly  proud ;  and  we 
should  be  grateful  to  our  gifted  countrywoman  who  has 
so  nobly  represented  us,  both  in  the  art  circles  and  in 
society  abroad,  not  less  by  her  genius  than  by  her  quiet 
womanly  virtues  and  her  heroism  during  the  siege  of 


284  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

Paris,  for  even  its  horrors  had  not  power  to  draw  her 
from  her  work.  Let  us  not  withhold  from  Mrs.  Morrell 
the  applause  which  foreigners  so  freely  bestow  upon 
her  and  her  works." 

"I.  G.,"  in  "The  Boston  Commonwealth,"  says, 
"  Mrs.  Morrell  has  been  devoted  to  art  from  her  early 
years.  She  left  Boston  some  fifteen  years  ago,  since 
which  time  she  has  studied  at  Dusselclorf  with  Schroe- 
der,  and  Camphausen,  now  court  painter  of  the  emperor 
of  Germany,  and  with  Couture  in  France,  from  whom, 
and  other  distinguished  artists,  she  has  received  testi- 
monials of  their  appreciation  of  her  talents.  The  pic- 
tures will  remain  in  Boston  only  a  day  or  two  next 
week,  before  going  to  Philadelphia  for  exhibition." 

Mrs.  Ellet  mentions  the  names  of  Mrs.  WOODMAN, 
Mrs.  RUGGLES,  and  Miss  CAROLINE  MAY,  as  fine  land- 
scape-artists seventeen  years  ago.  She  also  speaks  of 
crayon  heads  by  Miss  GORE,  flowers  by  Miss  GRAN- 
BURY,  and  interior  scenes  by  JULIANA  OAKLEY. 

Mrs.  Ellet  devotes  a  large  part  of  a  chapter,  in  her 
work  on  "  Women  Artists,"  to  an  interesting  sketch  of 
LILY  MARTIN  SPENCER,  the  well-known  painter  of 
"  Truth  Unveiling  Falsehood."  As  she  was  born  in 
England  of  French  parents,  we  do  not  count  her  among 
the  women  of  our  century,  but  coming  to  America 
when  but  six  years  old  her  life  has  been  American,  and 
few  have  any  suspicion  that  she  is  not  native  born. 

LOUISA  LANDER  of  Salem,  Mass.,  is  a  distant  rela- 
tive of  Benjamin  West,  and  a  descendant  of  Capt. 
Richard  Derby,  noted  in  the  Revolutionary  struggle. 
"  In  various  branches  of  her  family  has  artistic  talent 
shown  itself.  Her  grandmother  and  her  mother  were 
remarkable  for  their  fondness  for  art,  and  gave  evidence 
thereof  in  works  of  their  own.  In  the  old  family 


WOMEN   ARTISTS.  285 

mansion,  where  Louisa's  childhood  was  spent,  are  carv- 
ings upon  the  walls  and  over  the  lofty  doors,  designed 
by  her  grandmother,  and  executed  under  her  directions. 
Similar  designs,  evincing  both  taste  and  skill,  decorated 
the  mahogany  furniture ;  and  the  canopies  and  cover- 
ings of  the  furniture  were  embroidered  by  the  lady, 
according  to  the  fashion  of  the  day,  her  own  fancy  sup- 
plying the  beautiful  designs.  It  can  hardly  be  said 
when  commenced  the  artist-life  of  the  young  girl 
brought  up  under  such  influences." 

Even  in  childhood  she  modelled  heads  for  dolls  with 
surprising  skill,  and  her  early  drawings  were  marvels 
of  excellence  for  a  pupil.  She  left  her  native  land  to 
seek  the  culture  of  Rome,  and  was  there  a  pupil  of 
Crawford,  —  his  only  pupil,  —  and  exhibited  from  the 
first  great  skill  in  portraits.  She  finished  the  bust  of 
Chief-Justice  Shaw  in  marble  for  Gore  Hall,  —  the  Har- 
vard library.  "  This  talent  for  likenesses  is  observable 
in  the  first  efforts  of  Miss  Lander.  When  very  young, 
before  she  had  attempted  modelling,  she  carved  from  an 
old  alabaster  clock,  with  a  penknife,  several  heads  and 
faces  in  bas-relief.  These  were  noticed  by  a  friend, 
who  gave  her  a  bit  of  shell  and  some  gravers,  and  at 
once,  without  the  least  instruction,  she  carved  a  head 
in  cameo.  Likenesses  of  her  mother  and  other  friends 
were  made,  and  pronounced  very  striking." 

She  executed  a  fine  portrait  of-  Hawthorne  and  a 
bas-relief  of  Mountford.  She  made  also  a  charming 
statuette  of  Virginia  Dare,  and  afterward  a  statue  of 
life  size  in  marble.  She  executed  "To-day"  and 
'•'Galatea,"  "  Evangeline  "  and  "Elizabeth,  the  Exile 
of  Siberia,"  all  of  them  delightful  each  in  its  own  way, 
and  to  these  she  has  added  "  Undine,"  as  a  sculptured 
creation  of  beauty,  "  Ceres  Mourning  for  Proserpine." 


286  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

and  "A  Sylph."  These  are  all  mentioned  by  Mrs. 
Ellet.  Miss  Lander  has  continued  to  brighten  the 
world  of  art  by  her  genius.  May  she  long  live  to 
mould  clay,  and  chip  marble  into  forms  of  loveliness ! 

JENNIE  E.  BAKTLETT  of  Harmony,  Me.,  was  born 
with  a  love  of  art  that  could  not  be  repressed.  She  has 
succeeded  as  a  portrait-painter,  after  struggles  worthy 
of  the  prize  she  sought,  and  gives  proof  of  a  native 
energy  and  ability,  which  promises  still  very  much  more 
than  she  has  yet  wrought. 

Miss  MARGARET  HICKS,  who  graduated  in  architect- 
ure from  Cornell  University,  is  the  first  woman  in  a  col- 
lege to  undertake  this  profession.  The  theme  selected 
by  Miss  Hicks,  as  her  Commencement  Essay,  was  the 
"  Tenement  House,"  and  she  seemed  —  unlike  many  of 
the  architects  who  have  sent  plans  to  New  York  for 
which  premiums  are  offered  —  to  have  remembered  that 
houses  must  have  light  and  air,  closets  and  bed-rooms. 

KATE  N.  DOGGETT  is  a  well  known  patroness  of  art, 
with  much  ability  as  an  artist,  and  especially  as  an  art- 
critic.  She  resides  in  Chicago,  and  since  her  return 
from  Europe  has  favored  the  formation  of  artists'  socie- 
ties, and  given  great  encouragement  to  young  artists  in 
various  ways.  Of  REBECCA  A.  MORSE  of  New  York 
City  very  much  the  same  may  be  said.  She  has  been 
the  chairman  of  the  art  committee  of  Sorosis  for  sev- 
eral years,  and  her  papers  on  art  have  been  worthy  of 
wide  circulation.  She  has  bravely  battled  for  art  as 
represented  in  chromos,  believing  that  good  chromos 
are  better  than  poor  oil  paintings,  and  that  chromos 
may  educate  and  adorn  as  well  as  other  pictures,  and 
because  of  their  greater  cheapness  perform  a  greater 
work  in  educating  children,  because  more  homes  can 
offord  to  purchase  them.  As  the  wife  of  Prof.  Morse, 


WOMEN    ARTISTS.  287 

the  artist  and  teacher,  this  lady  has  superior  advantages 
in  respect  to  criticism  and  information,  which  have 
been  well  improved.  Many  a  struggling  artist  has 
been  blessed  by  her  kind  encouragement  and  benevo- 
lent hand. 

MARY  WESTON,  n£e  Pillsbury,  is  mentioned  at  some 
length  by  Mrs.  Ellet.  She  was  born  in  Hebron,  N.H., 
the  daughter  of  a  Baptist  clergyman.  "  One  day, 
when  between  seven  and  eight,  she  noticed  a  beautiful 
woman ;  and,  returning  home,  went  quietly  to  her 
father's  study,  creeping  in,  as  it  was  locked,  through 
two  panes  of  a  window,  to  which  she  climbed  by  a 
chair  on  the  bed,  in  search  of  a  slate  and  pencil.  With 
this  she  began  to  make  a  sketch  of  the  face  that  had 
chaimed  her.  She  made  the  oval  outline,  but  could 
not  give  the  expression '  about  the  mouth  and  eyes. 
With  a  keen  sense  of  disappointment  she  relinquished 
the  hopeless  task.  But  the  artist-passion  was  awak- 
ened within  her."  As  the  years  rolled  on,  it  was  found 
that  the  task  was  not  hopeless,  though  she  had  little 
encouragement  from  those  about  her.  She  was  poorly 
furnished  with  materials.  "For  the  colors  of  her 
flowers  Mary  used  beet-juice,  extract  of  bean-leaves 
prepared  by  herself,  etc.,  till  the  welcome  present  of  a 
>box  of  paints  made  her  independent  of  such  contriv- 
ances." After  many  vicissitudes,  graphically  told  by 
Mrs.  Ellet,  she  was  married  to  one  who  appreciated  her 
genius ;  and  from  that  time  she  painted  as  much  as  was 
consistent  with  the  care  or  her  two  children.  Her 
copies  from  the  old  masters  are  considered  admirable, 
and  her  portraits  excellent. 

JULIA  DU  PRE,  a  native  of  Charleston,  S.C.,  who 
afterward  married  Henry  Bonnethean,  is  esteemed  as  a 
lovely  woman,  and  fine  artist,  according  to  Mrs.  Ellet's 


288  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

testimony.  The  Misses  WITHERS  of  Charleston  ar£  also 
mentioned  as  good  painters  in  oil,  and  as  haying  ability 
in  cutting  cameos.  CHARLOTTE  CHEVES  of  Columbia, 
S.C.,  and  ELLEN  COOPEB  of  the  same  place,  and  MAEY 
AISN  DOUGLAS,  now  Mrs.  Johnson  of  Westfield, 
Mass.,  are  on  Mrs.  Ellet's  pages  as  artists  of  worth. 

"  About  seven  years  ago  "  (now  thirty),  Bays 
Mrs.  Ellet,  "a  School  of  Design  for  Women  was 
started  by  Miss  Hamilton,  which,  supported  by  volun- 
tary contributions,  met  with  encouraging  success.  It 
has  now  been  adopted  by  the  trustees  of  the  Cooper 
Institute,  and  a  sum  is  allowed  annually  for  the  support 
of  teachers." 

EMMA  STEBBINS  is  a  native  of  New  York  City ;  and 
from  Mrs.  Ellet's  sketch  we  learn  that  she  was  a  pupil 
of  Henry  Inman  in  oil-painting,  and  that  to  this  aid 
some  of  her  friends  attributed  the  masterly  correctness 
and  grace  displayed  in  her  portraits,  and  for  which 
afterward  her  crayon  sketches  were  so  muoh  admired. 

One  of  her  early  works  was  a  volume  to  which  she 
gave  the  title,  "  A  Book  of  Prayer."  It  contains  some 
beautiful  specimens  of  her  poetry,  but  is  chiefly  remark- 
able for  its  exquisite  illuminations.  Some  of  her  crayon 
portraits,  executed  in  Rome,  received  the  highest  enco- 
miums from  acknowledged  judges  in  that  city.  A  copy 
she  made  of  the  "  St.  John  "  of  Du  Boauf,  and  one  from 
a  painting  in  the  gallery  of  the  Louvre,  representing 
"  A  Girl  Dictating  a  Love-Letter,"  were  noted  among 
her  oil-paintings.  Her  "  Boy  and  Bird's  Nest "  was 
done  in  the  style  of  Murillo.  Her  pastel-painting  of 
«'  Two  Dogs  "  has  been  highly  praised.  Almost  every 
branch  of  the  imitative  art  has  been  at  different  periods 
cultivated  by  Miss  Stebbins,  and  her  success  proves 
the  scope  and  versatility  of  her  talent.  Besides  painting 


•WOMEN  ARTISTS.  281) 

in  oil  and  water  colors,  she  has  practised  drawing  on 
wood  and  carving  wood,  modelling  in  clay,  and  working 
in  marble.  It  is  probably  in  the  difficult  art  of  sculp- 
ture that  she  will  leave  to  America  the  works  by  which 
she  will  be  most  widely  known.  She  profited,  like 
Miss  Hosmer,  by  the  counsels  and  supervision  of  Gibson, 
and  the  careful  instruction  of  Akers. 

Several  works  from  her  chisel  command  high  praise, 
especially  her  statues  of  "  Industry  "  and  "  Commerce," 
her  statue  of  "  Sandalphon,"  and  the  exquisite  fountain 
now  in  Central  Park,  representing  an  angel,  with  other 
figures  and  carvings  above  and  beneath  the  basin. 
Chief  among  her  busts  is  one  in  marble  of  her  cher- 
ished friend  Charlotte  Cushman,  whose  place  is  the 
Boston  Athenaeum,  but  which  is  on  exhibition  at  the 
Centennial  Exposition. 

MARY  B.  MELLEN  ;  born  in  Sterling,  Mass. ;  her 
parents,  Reuben  and  Sally  Blood,  still  residing  there  in 
a  green  old  age.  This  artist  can  hardly  remember 
when  she  began  using  the  brush,  so  early  did  she 
manifest  an  interest  in  painting.  She  was  taught  to 
use  water-colors  in  her  native  place,  at  a  boarding- 
school  conducted  by  a  Miss  Thayer.  She  attended 
afterward  the  Fryville  Seminary  in  Bolton,  Mass., 
which  was  then  under  the  auspices  of  the  Quakers. 
Her  parents  fearing  that  her  love  of  art  would  bar  her 
progress  in  other  directions  as  a  student,  if  indulged, 
designed  to  have  her  paint-box  remain  at  home.  She 
was  not  informed  of  their  wishes,  consequently  it  was 
the  first  thing  packed  ;  for  to  her  it  was  of  the  highest 
importance.  In  a  leisure  time  at  the  seminary  she 
sketched  the  buildings  and  grounds,  which  so  pleased 
Mr.  Fry  that  he  desired  to  purchase  the  picture,  and 
engaged  the  young  artist  to  impart  to  one  of  her 
teachers  a  knowledge  of  this  beautiful  art. 


'290  WOMEN    OF   THK  CENTURY. 

This  lady  married  Rev.  C.  W.  Mellen,  whose  taste 
and  culture  enabled  him  to  take  a  lively  interest  in  her 
efforts  at  oil-painting.  She  was  instructed  by  the  late 
Fitz-Henry  Lane  of  Gloucester,  Mass. ;  and,  as  he  was 
unquestionably  one  of  the  best  marine  painters  in  the 
country,  it  is  no  wonder  that  in  after  years  the  pupil 
received  a  large  meed  of  praise  for  her  originals  and 
copies.  Her  copy  of  Lane's  "  On  the  Lee  Shore  "  has 
elicited  the  warm  encomiums  of  the  press.  One  editor 
remarked,  "  An  old '  sea  dog,'  in  looking  at  it  yesterday, 
exclaimed,  '  Them  anchors  yer  only  hope  ! ' "  and  added, 
"  Mrs.  Mellen  is  so  faithful  in  the  copies  of  her  master, 
that  even  an  expert  might  take  them  for  originals. 
Indeed,  an  anecdote  is  related  of  her,  which  will  exem- 
plify her  power  in  this  direction.  She  had  just  com- 
pleted a  copy  of  one  of  Mr.  Lane's  pictures  when  he 
called  at  her  residence  to  see  it.  The  copy  and  the 
original  were  brought  down  from  the  studio  together, 
and  the  master,  much  to  the  amusement  of  those  pres- 
ent, was  unable  to  tell  which  was  his  own,  and  which 
was  the  pupil's." 

Mrs.  Mellen  now  resides  in  Taunton,  Mass.,  and  is 
still  actively  engaged  in  her  studio  with  good  success. 

MAY  ALCOTT  should  not  be  forgotten  among  artists, 
since  her  sketches  have  so  enlivened  the  pages  of  her 
sister's  stories.  Born  in  Concord,  Mass.,  of  patriotic 
and  philosophic  stock,  and  one  of  the  originals  of 
"  Little  Women,"  she  has  been  diligent  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  will  take  high  place  among  those  whose 
etchings  speak  to  the  eye  and  the  heart,  and  finely  illus- 
trate life  and  sentiment,  the  grave  and  the  gay. 

ELIZABETH  K.  DE  NOKMANDIE,  the  third  of  nine 
children,  was  born  in  Bucks  County,  Penn.  Her  fathei 
was  one  who  deserved  the  title  of  "  beloved  physician.' 


WOMEN  ARTISTS.  291 

On  the  paternal  side  she  has  Huguenot  blood  in  her 
veins,  and  Quaker  on  that  of  her  mother,  who  was 
Sarah  B.  Yardley.  Owing  to  ill  health  the  father  ceased 
the  practice  of  his  profession,  and  moved  to  the  West. 
The  mother  was  a  rare  spirit,  a  woman  worthy  of  her 
three  clergymen  sons,  and  her  artist  daughter.  "  She 
was  e\  er  the  bright  spirit  of  the  household,  ever  speak- 
ing the  fitting  word,  ever  counselling  her  children  with 
wisdom  and  love.  Through  changes  of  place  and  for- 
tune, through  loss  and  disappointment,  ev  er  her  bright 
spirit  looked  up  and  onward.  Amid  many  other  duties 
that  were  conscientiously  discharged,  she  daily  taught 
her  young  family,  saying  she  did  not  think  it  right  to 
send  young  children  to  school  until  they  could  read, 
write,  and  understand  something  of  arithmetic  and 
geography.  So  then  and  always,  while  her  children 
were  at  home,  were  they  drawn  around  her  through  the 
day  and  by  lamplight,  while  she  superintended  their 
studies  as  only  an  intelligent,  judicious  mother  can." 
At  her  mother's  death  Miss  De  Normandie  continued 
to  keep  the  little  store  in  which  the  writer  of  this  vol- 
ume first  saw  her,  at  Yellow  Springs,  O.,  to  which  place 
her  parents  removed  for  the  education  of,  their  sons 
under  Horace  Mann,  and  where  Miss  De  Normandie 
was  then  studying  the  modern  languages,  when  Antioch 
College  was  presided  over  by  the  genial  Dr.  Hosmer. 
She  painted  admirably  in  oils  for  years.  In  1874  she 
crossed  the  Atlantic  and  made  the  tour  of  Europe 
alone.  Far  below  the  average  stature  of  woman,  yet 
tier  courage  and  strength  were  sufficient  for  all  her  need ; 
and  she  spent  about  sixteen  months  visiting  nearly 
every  country  of  Europe,  and  in  her  own  experience 
proved  that  "  a  lady  can  travel  alone  and  on  limited 
means  through  every  interesting  spot  of  Europe,  gain- 


292  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTCUIY. 

Ing  information  and  experience  that  may  henceforth 
enrich  her  life."  She  is  "quite  certain  that  many 
ladies,  if  they  are  willing  to  be  economical,  can  save 
from  unnecessary  expenses  of  dress  and  table  and 
amusement,  in  a  few  years,  enough  to  make  such  a 
tour."  Miss  De  Normandie  spent  several  months  in 
the  Louvre,  painting,  and  since  her  return  has  contrib- 
uted articles  concerning  her  journey  to  a  religious  jour- 
nal, showing  that  the  American  woman  artist  or  the 
literary  woman  can  easily  and  proiitably  see  Europe  if 
she  will. 

Miss  EMILY  SABTAIN.  «« This  talented  lady  is  a  native 
of  Philadelphia,  where  she  still  resides ;  but  her  repu- 
tation was  long  since  spread  wide  over  the  country 
as  an  eminent  engraver  on  steel,  to  which  difficult  art 
she  has  added  that  of  painter  in  oil  colors  of  figure 
subjects. 

"  The  mechanical  skill  to  be  acquired  before  successful 
work  is  produced  in  mezzotinto  engraving  is  much  less 
than  in  the  line  manner,  or  even  in  the  style  called 
stippling ;  but  it  demands  much  more  artistic  ability, 
and  that  self-reliance,  the  result  of  a  mastery  in  the  art 
of  drawing  from  the  model,  which  enables  the  engraver 
to  proceed  in  a  painter-like  manner,  with  free  and  con- 
fident intelligence  of  touch.  Hence,  the  best  education 
is  first  to  learn  to  paint  in  oils,  which  necessarily  in- 
cludes a  knowledge  and  practice  of  drawing. 

"  Such  was  the  course  of  study  pursued  by  Miss  Sar- 
tain,  the  pioneer  among  American  women  in  the  art  of 
engraving  on  steel ;  and  this  doubtless  contributed,  not 
only  to  the  striking  excellence  of  her  productions,  but 
also  to  the  facility  and  rapidity  which  are  marked  char- 
acteristics of  her  execution.  She  has  been  an  earnest  and 
laborious  student  in  the  Art  School  of  the  Pennsylvania 


WOMEN   ARTISTS. 


293 


Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  at  Philadelphia  from  the 
time  that  Mr.  Christian  Schussele  received  the  appoint- 
ment of  professor  in  that  institution ;  an  instructor 
unequalled  in  his  faculty  of  imparting  knowledge  of  an 
art  of  which  he  is  one  of  the  brightest  ornaments. 
Under  the  intelligent  and  judicious  guidance  of  the 
professor,  she  labored  diligently  in  drawing  from  the 
casts  of  antique  statuary,  of  which  the  academy  pro- 
vides the  student  with  such  an  ample  collection,  and 
also  in  painting  in  oil  colors  from  the  living  models 
furnished  in  the  same  school.  The  lectures  on  artistic 
anatomy,  which  form  part  of  the  art  course  of  instruc- 
tion, had  also  its  share  in  the  advancement  of  the  pupil. 
With  this  thorough  groundwork  she  was  well  prepared 
to  profit  by  the  instruction  and  many  years'  experience 
of  her  father,  the  veteran  artist,  John  Sartain,  in  the 
art  of  engraving. 

"Besides  the  advantages  enumerated,  possessed  by 
Miss  Sartain  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  pupils,  male 
and  female,  in  the  Pennsylvania  Academy,  must  not 
be  forgotten  the  important  one  of  more  than  a  year's 
observation  of  the  finest  examples  of  art  in  Europe. 
Making  several  visits  to  the  Old  World,  travelling 
through  Italy,  Germany,  France,  Belgium,  Holland, 
and  Great  Britain,  and  studying  on  the  way,  with 
interest  and  care,  the  many  collections  of  pictures,  from 
Naples  in  the  extreme  south  to  Edinburgh  in  the  north, 
could  not  but  result  in  greatly  maturing  the  judgment, 
and  elevating  the  taste  and  aspirations,  of  one  so  ob- 
servant, and  so  eager  after  improvement,  and  ever 
ready  to  transmute  opportunity  into  the  gold  of  reali- 
zation. She  appears  to  be  endowed  with  a  remarkable 
natural  aptitude;  for  the  usual  school  training,  which 
preceded  her  art  studies,  was  gone  through  with  the 


294  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

same  quiet  determination,  and  rapid  as  well  as  solid 
achievement,  that  has  distinguished  her  in  after  pur- 
suits. The  testimony  borne  by  all  her  instructors  — 
French,  German,  Italian  —  is  of  her  calm  persistency 
and  swift  mastery  of  whatever  she  applied  herself  to. 
Prof.  Bishop  is  extravagant  in  his  praises  of  the  way 
in  which  she  overcame  the  difficulties  of  musical 
science  under  his  instruction ;  not  of  the  practice  —  she 
had  no  time  for  that  —  but  of  the  principles.  We  may 
add,  that  her  acquirements  in  the  regions  of  literature 
are  at  least  equal  to  her  art  knowledge  and  experience, 
and  are  not  confined  to  the  boundaries  of  her  native 
language. 

"  In  addition  to  numerous  portraits,  Miss  Sartain  has 
engraved  several  compositions  of  larger  size  for  framing 
as  parlor-wall  decorations,  well-known  pictures  after 
Richter,  Jalabert,  Von  Hoslt,  and  others.  But  at  last 
her  love  of  color  induced  her  to  turn  her  attention  to 
oil-painting  as  an  end  instead  of  a  means,  and  she 
became  the  private  pupil  of  Prof.  Schussele  on  the 
temporary  closing  of  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  during 
the  building  of  its  present  superb  edifice.  On  leaving 
Prof.  Schussele  to  pursue  her  studies  in  Europe, 
she  spent  a  winter  in  Parma,  Italy,  a  city  rich  in  the 
productions  of  Correggio,  and  thence  went  to  Paris, 
where,  during  four  years,  she  matured  her  knowledge 
and  technical  skill  in  the  atelier  of  the  eminent  artist, 
Monsieur  Evariste  Luminais,  at  the  same  time  profiting 
by  the  advantages  afforded  in  the  rich  galleries  of  the 
Louvre,  and  the  constantly  recurring  exhibitions  of  the 
finest  works  of  modern  art  in  that  centre  of  European 
civilization. 

"In  1875  two  of  Miss  Sartain's  paintings,  a  genre  pic- 
ture and  a  life-size  portrait,  had  the  honor  of  being 


WOMEN   ARTISTS.  295 

accepted  at  the  Paris  Salon,  where  the  ordeal  is  so 
severe  that  more  than  one-half  the  artistic  productions 
offered  are  rejected.  In  the  International  Exhibition 
of  this  centennial  year,  in  her  native  city,  Miss  Sartain 
received  the  distinction  of  a  medal  of  honor  in  the  first 
group  selected  as  prominent  for  artistic  excellence 
among  the  representative  artists  of  the  nation.  At 
present  she  is  hard  at  work  in  her  Philadelphia  studio 
at  both  of  her  professions,  winning  new  laurels,  and 
laying  the  foundation  of  a  reputation  which  will  be 
cited  by  posterity." 

Mrs.  WOBMLY,  the  wife  of  Dr.  Wormly  of  Colum- 
bus, O.,  is  also  a  noted  engraver  on  steel.  She 
illustrated  a  work  written  by  her  husband,  who  is  a 
chemist,  having  first  made  the  drawings,  and  sent  them 
to  some  eastern  city  to  be  engraved.  "A  difficulty 
arose :  no  engraver  could  be  found  to  undertake  the 
microscopic  work  required.  It  was  the  opinion  of 
engravers  who  were  consulted,  that  only  the  artist  who 
drew  the  pictures  could  successfully  engrave  them. 
Thus  compelled  to  finish  the  work,  the  wife  of  Dr. 
Wormly  learned  the  art  of-  engraving,  engraved  the 
plates,  and  enjoys  the  honor  of  having  contributed  so 
largely  to  the  beauty  and  completeness  of  a  celebrated 
scientific  treatise." 

Women  as  wood-carvers  have  exhibited  great  artis- 
tic ability,  and  the  edifice  known  as  the  "  Lake  Geneva 
Seminary"  in  Wisconsin  was  designed  by  a  woman. 
Its  architect  was  HABEIET  E.  WAKNEK,  whose  mother 
is  the  principal.  She  has  "  demonstrated  that  a  woman 
can  design  a  large  building  that  shall  combine,  to  a  rare 
degree,  beauty  and  fitness.  Without  having  given 
any  previous  attention  to  architecture,  she  has  achieved 
this  success.  Her  artistic  gifts  and  training  of  course 


296  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

paved  the  way ;  for  this  architect  is  an  artist  by  pro- 
fession, and  a  credit  to  her  young  State.  In  the 
Woman's  Department  at  Philadelphia  are  two  lovely 
specimens  of  her  work.  The  shrine  of  carved  ebony 
and  silver,  contributed  by  the  women  of  Wisconsin, 
has  two  gem  pictures  in  panels,  bits  of  the  lake  and 
shore  in  the  delicate  blue  and  green  of  their  spring 
attire.  These  glimpses  of  the  lake,  in  its  sunny,  spring- 
time mood,  were  caught  by  Miss  Warner,  who  studies 
the  scenery  with  as  much  devotion  as  a  lover  studies 
the  changing  expressions  of  his  lady's  face.  Her  artis- 
tic talent  she  seems  to  have  inherited  from  her  mother, 
a  woman  of  rare  cultivation." 

EDMONTA  LEWIS  is  entitled  to  be  mentioned  with  the 
women  artists  of  our  first  century.  Let  "  The  Christian 
Register  "  tell  her  story. 

"All  who  were  present  at  Tremont  Temple  on  the 
Monday  evening  of  the  presentation  to  Rev.  Mr.  Grimes 
of  the  marble  group  of  '  Forever  Free,'  executed  by 
Miss  Edmonia  Lewis,  must  have  been  deeply  interested. 
No  one,  not  born  subject  to  the  «  Cotton  King,'  could 
look  upon  this  piece  of  sculpture  without  profound 
emotion.  The  noble  figure  of  the  man,  his  very  muscles 
seeming  to  swell  with  gratitude  ;  the  expression  of  the 
right  now  to  protect,  with  which  he  throws  his  arm 
around  his  kneeling  wife ;  the  '  Praise  de  Lord '  hover- 
ing on  their  lips ;  the  broken  chain,  —  all  so  instinct 
with  life,  telling  in  the  very  poetry  of  stone  the  story 
of  the  last  ten  years.  And  when  it  is  remembered  who 
created  this  group,  an  added  interest  is  given  to  it. 
Who  threw  so  much  expression  into  those  figures  ? 
What  well-known  sculptor  arranged  with  such  artistic 
grace  those  speaking  forms  ?  Will  any  one  believe  it 
was  the  small  hand  of  a  girl  that  wrought  the  marble 


WOMEN  ABTISTS.  297 

and  kindled  the  light  within  it  ?  —  a  girl  of  dusky  hue, 
mixed  Indian  and  African,  who  not  more  than  eight 
years  ago  sat  down  on  the  steps  of  the  City  Hall  to  eat 
the  dry  crackers  with  which  alone  her  empty  purse 
allowed  her  to  satisfy  her  hunger ;  but  as  she  sat  and 
thought  of  her  dead  brother,  of  her  homeless  state, 
something  caught  her  eye,  the  hunger  of  the  stomach 
ceased,  but  the  hunger  of  the  soul  began.  That  quiet 
statue  of  the  good  old  Franklin  had  touched  the  electric 
spark,  and  kindled  the  latent  genius  which  was  en- 
shrined within  her,  as  her  own  group  was  in  the  marble, 
till  her  chisel  brought  it  out.  For  weeks  she  haunted 
that  spot  and  the  State  House,  where  she  could  see 
Washington  and  Webster.  She  asked  questions,  and 
found  that  such  things  were  first  made  in  clay.  She 
got  a  lump  of  hard  mud,  shaped  her  some  sticks,  and, 
her  heart  divided  between  art  and  the  terrible  struggle 
for  freedom,  which  had  just  received  the  seal  of  Col. 
Shaw's  blood,  she  wrought  out,  from  photographs  and 
her  own  ideal,  an  admirable  bust  of  him.  This  made 
the  name  of  Edmonia  Lewis  known  in  Boston.  The 
unknown  waif  on  the  steps  of  City  Hall  had,  in  a  few 
short  months,  become  an  object  of  interest  to  a  large 
circle  of  those  most  anxious  about  the  great  problem  of 
the  development  of  the  colored  race  in  their  new 
position. 

"  We  next  hear  of  Edmonia  in  Rome,  where  her  per- 
severance, industry,  genius,  and  naivete  made  her  warm 
friends.  Miss  Charlotte  Cushman  and  Miss  Hosmer 
took  great  interest  in  her.  Her  studio  was  visited  by 
all  strangers,  who  looked  upon  the  creations  of  this 
untaught  maiden  as  marvellous.  She  modelled  there 
'  The  Freedwoman  on  First  Hearing  of  her  Liberty,'  of 
which  it  is  said, '  It  tells  with  much  eloquence  a  painful 


298  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTTJBY.         % 

story.'  No  one  can  deny  that  she  has  distinguished 
herself  in  sculpture;  not,  perhaps,  in  the  highest  grade, 
but  in  a  most  natural  and  pleasing  form.  Six  months 
ago  the  waif  returned  to  her  own  country,  to  sit  once 
again  on  the  steps  of  the  City  Hall,  just  to  recall  the 
'  then,'  and  contrast  it  with  the  '  now.'  '  Then,'  hungry, 
heart-weary,  no  plan  for  the  future.  '  Now,'  the  hunger 
of  the  soul  satisfied  ;  freedom  to  do,  to  achieve,  won  by 
her  own  hand ;  friends  gained  ;  the  world  to  admire. 
She  brought  with  her  to  this  country  a  bust  of  *  our ' 
poet,  said  to  be  one  of  the  best  ever  taken.  It  has  been 
proposed  by  some  of  Longfellow's  friends  to  have  it  put 
in  marble,  for  Harvard.  It  would  be  a  beautiful  thought 
that  the  author  of  '  Hiawatha  '  should  be  embalmed  IE 
stone  by  a  descendant  from  Minnehaha.  And  certainly 
nothing  can  be  more  appropriate  than  the  presentation 
to  Rev.  Mr.  Grimes,  the  untiring  friend  of  his  race,  the 
indomitable  worker,  the  earnest  preacher,  of  this  rare 
work,  '  Forever  Free,'  uniting  grace  and  sentiment,  the 
offspring  of  an  enthusiastic  soul,  who  consecrates  her 
genius  to  truth  and  beauty." 

ANNA  WHITNEY  of  Massachusetts  has  won  an  en- 
viable place  among  women  artists.  Her  native  State 
has  lately  ordered  of  her  a  statue  of  Samuel  Adams  for 
the  national  collection  at  Washington,  of  which  "  The 
Boston  Journal"  thus  speaks :  — 

"  The  statue  of  Samuel  Adams  by  Miss  Annie  Whit- 
ney has  just  been  received  from  Italy,  and  is  now  on 
exhibition  in  the  vestibule  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum, 
preliminary  to  its  removal  to  Washington,  it  having 
been  accepted  by  the  Commission.  It  is  a  work  which 
cannot  fail  to  command  almost  universal  admiration. 
The  pose  of  the  figure  is  simple,  dignified,  and  manly 
He  stands  with  folded  arms,  a  figure  full  of  power.  The 


WOMEN  ARTISTS.  299 

head  and  face  are  fine,  expressive  of  the  republican 
virtues  which  were  the  prominent  traits  of  the  char- 
acter of  Samuel  Adams.  The  entire  impression  of  the 
statue  strongly  reminds  one  of  what  John  Adams  said 
of  him,  '  that  upon  great  occasions,  when  his  deeper 
feelings  were  excited,  he  erected  himself,  or  rather 
nature  seemed  to  erect  him,  without  the  smallest  symp- 
tom of  affectation,  into  an  upright  dignity  of  figure  and 
gesture  which  made  a  strong  impression  on  spectators.' 

"  It  borrows  nothing  from  drapery :  there  is  neither 
cloak  nor  mantle;  only  the  small-clothes,  the  long 
waistcoat,  and  the  straight-breasted,  hood-skirted  coat, 
which  was  the  simple  dress  of  the  time.  The  hair  is 
brushed  back  from  the  forehead,  and  tied  in  a  queue 
behind.  The  first  impression  one  gets  of  the  statue  is 
its  grand  simplicity,  dignity,  and  power. 

"  It  is  mounted  upon  a  plain  pedestal,  some  changes 
in  which  are,  however,  yet  to  be  made.  It  is  inscribed 
on  one  side,  'Night  is  approaching.  An  immediate 
answer  is  expected.  Both  regiments  or  none.  March 
6,  1770 ; '  and  on  the  other,  « Presented  by  Massachu- 
setts, 1876 ; '  while  it  bears  on  the  front  in  raised  letters 
the  single  name,  '  Samuel  Adams.' 

"  As  a  whole,  it  is  a  worthy  memorial  of  one  of  the 
noblest  of  Massachusetts'  patriots,  and  one  of  the  wisest 
of  the  friends  of  the  Republic." 

Other  artists  there  are,  some  of  whom  are  here  briefly 
mentioned,  though  they  deserve  much  more:  SARAH 
E.  FULLER,  who  is  a  fine  engraver  on  wood  also,  and 
received  a  medal  from  the  Vienna  Exposition  for  her 
excellent  work;  ALICE  DONLEVY,  who  has  prepared 
an  excellent  elementary  work  on  "  Illumination,"  and  is 
custodian  of  the  Ladies'  Art  Association  of  New  York, 
ever  active  and  successful  in  many  departments  of  art ; 


800  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

VINNIE  REAM,  who  has  been  greatly  blamed  as  well  as 
highly  praised  as  a  sculptor,  and  doubtless  deserves  less 
censure  for  failures,  and  more  praise  for  the  really  good 
work  the  little  woman  has  done  and  is  still  doing ; 
MAKGARITTA  WILLETTS  HARRISON,  whose  crayon  por- 
traits are  exceedingly  fine,  and  who  is  a  successful 
teacher  of  drawing  in  the  public  schools  of  Jersey  City  ; 
JOANNA  QUINER,  who  never  modelled  till  after  she  was 
forty,  and  then  made  excellent  busts  of  Robert  Ran- 
toul,  Frothingham  the  artist,  and  others,  which  were 
commended  in  "The  North  American  Review."  A 
biographical  sketch  of  her  by  the  writer  of  this  volume 
may  be  found  published  in  the  "  Historical  Collections  " 
of  the  Essex  Institute  (vol.  xii.,  part  1,  January,  1874). 
She  was  a  native  of  Beverly,  Mass.,  born  Aug.  27, 
1796  ;  died  in  1869,  in  Lynn,  Mass.  She  was  a  woman 
worthy  of  this  century ;  a  friend  to  temperance,  holding 
official  position  in  the  Order  of  Good  Templars,  and 
ever  ready  for  any  benevolent  work.  Miss  A.  R. 
SAWYER  of  Boston  is  a  crayon  artist  of  more  than 
ordinary  ability.  Among  her  works  which  have  become 
famous  are  "  The  Empty  Sleeve,"  "  The  Better  Land," 
and  "Only  a  Little  Brook."  SARAH  RANSOM  and 
SARAH  F.  AMES  are  artists  of  ability,  worthy  of  far 
more  than  this  brief  mention.  But  there  really  is  space 
only  for  one  more  name,  and  that  a  familiar  one,  the 
details  of  whose  'career  have  been  often  published,  and 
nay  be  found  in  "  Eminent  Women  of  the  Age,"  and 
ilso  in  "Women  Artists."  That  woman's  name  is* 
HARRIET  HOSMER,  whose  fame  will  never  die  from  her 
native  land,  while  her  merry  pranks  in  Watertown, 
Mass.,  her  early  home,  are  also  remembered  as  an  ear- 
nest of  the  brave  spirit  which  struggled  for  an  educa- 
tion in  anatomy  needful  for  a  sculptor.  She  ha? 


WOMEN   AUTISTS.  301 

since  made  good  use  of  all  her  knowledge.  Gibson's 
pupil  has  sent  forth  from  her  studio  in  Rome  statues 
that  command  universal  admiration,  and  have  made  her 
name  a  household  word.  Such  petrified  inspirations 
as  "  Beatrice  "  and  "  Zenobia  "  are  not  easily  forgotten. 
She  is  still  in  Rome,  bravely  working  out  her  destiny  as 
a  sculptor  and  a  woman.  It  was  the  writer's  privilege 
to  meet  her  at  the  Rockland  House  in  1868,  on  Nan- 
tasket  Beach.  She  had  that  morning  listened  to  my 
sermon  from  the  words,  "I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I 
awake  in  Thy  likeness ; "  in  which,  all  unconscious 
af  her  presence,  I  had  illustrated  my  theme  by  a  ref- 
erence to  the  struggles  of  artists  and  students,  and 
the  satisfaction  of  attainment  after  toil.  A  few 
days  after  I  received  a  note  from  her,  in  which  she 
wrote  words  of  cheer  for  woman.  Referring  to  the 
ordination  of  Rev.  William  Garrison  Haskell  at  Mar- 
blehead,  Mass.,  in  which  Rev.  Olympia  Brown  and 
myself  were  to  take  part,  she  said,  "  On  Monday  I  saw 
a  notice  of  the  ceremony  which  was  to  take  place  yes- 
terday, and  I  only  wished  that  circumstances  had 
favored  my  being  present ;  and,  while  reading,  I  could 
not  but  think  what  a  country  mine  is  for  women ! 
Here  every  woman  has  a  chance,  if  she  is  bold  enough 
to  avail  herself  of  it ;  and  I  ana  proud  of  every  woman 
who  is  bold  enough.  I  honor  every  woman  who  has 
strength  enough  to  step  out  of  the  beaten  path  when 
she  feels  that  her  walk  lies  in  another ;  strength  enough 
to  stand  up  to  be  laughed  at,  if  necessary.  That  is  a 
bitter  pill  we  must  all  swallow  in  the  beginning ;  but 
I  regard  these  pills  as  tonics  quite  essential  to  one's 
mental  salvation.  That  invigorator  was  administered 
to  me  very  plentifully  by  some  of  my  brother  artists  on 
my  arrival  in  Rome :  but  when  the  learned  doctors 


302  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

changed  their  treatment,  and  declared  that  I  did  not  do 
my  own  work,  I  felt  that  I  must  have  made  some 
progress  in  my  art;  otherwise  they  would  not  have 
been  so  ready  to  attribute  that  work  to  one  of  their 
own  sex.  You  have  the  advantage  there ;  for  no  one 
can  say  you  do  not  preach  your  own  sermons.  But  in 
a  few  more  years  it  will  not  be  thought  strange  that 
women  should  be  preachers  and  sculptors,  and  every 
one  who  comes  after  us  will  have  to  bear  fewer  and 
fewer  blows.  Therefore  I  say,  I  honor  all  those  who 
step  boldly  forward,  and,  in  spite  of  ridicule  and  criti- 
cism, pave  a  broader  way  for  the  women  of  the  next 
generation." 

The  work  which  Miss  Hosmer  has  accomplished  is 
simply  marvellous.  Her  "Puck,"  "Sleeping  Fawn," 
"  Waking  Fawn,"  and  monuments  to  Benton  and  oth- 
ers, especially  her  bronze  gates  for  Earl  Brownlow,  will 
long  keep  her  memory  green.  Rev.  R.  B.  Thurston 
writes  thus :  "  Her  studio  in  the  Via  Margutta  is  said 
to  be  itself  a  work  of  art,  and  the  most  beautiful  in 
Rome,  if  not  in  Italy.  The  entrance  is  made  attractive 
with  flowers  and  birds.  In  the  centre  of  the  first 
room  stands  '  The  Fountain  of  Siren.'  Each  room  of  the 
series  contains  some  work  of  art,  hanging  baskets,  and 
floral  decorations.  Her  own  apartment,  in  which  she 
herself  works,  displays  her  early  tastes  in  flowers  and 
broken  relics  of  art,  with  collections  of  minerals,  draw- 
ings, and  rare  books.  A  lady  writes  for  the  use  of  this 
sketch :  '  She  superintends  the  work  herself,  and  will 
wield  the  chisel  more  adroitly  than  any  practised  work- 
man. In  this  she  has  the  advantage ;  for  many  artists 
can  only  design,  and  ignore  the  practical  working 
of  their  ideas,  which,  left  to  a  mechanical  taste,  often 
leave  us  an  inexpressible  dissatisfaction,  while  admiring 


WOMEN  AETISTS.  303 

the  conception.  .  .  .  Miss  Hosmer's  genius  is  not  lim- 
ited to  sculpture.  There  are  those  who  believe,  that, 
had  she  chosen  the  pursuit  of  letters,  she  would  have 
excelled  as  much  in  literature  as  she  does  in  art,  —  that 
she  would  have  wielded  the  pen  with  as  much  skill  and 
power  as  she  does  the  chisel  of  the  statuary.  Evidences 
of  this  are  found  in  her  correspondence.  She  has  pub- 
lished a  beautiful  poem,  dedicated  to  Lady  Maria  Alford 
of  England,  and  a  well-written  article  in  '  The  Atlantic 
Monthly '  on  the  '  Process  of  Sculpture,'  perspicuous 
and  philosophical  in  its  treatment  of  the  subject.  In  it 
she  defends  women  artists  against  the  impeachments  of 
their  jealous  brothers." l 

The  chapter  ends,  but  could  not  give  the  long  list 
of  those  women  who  have  manifested  ability  in  art. 
The  adoption  of  drawing  as  a  public-school  study  will 
give  us  yet  more  artists  from  among  the  bright  girls 
of  the  second  century,  to  emulate  the  women  of  the 
first. 

May  Alcott,  mentioned  above,  married  M.  Neriker, 
and  died  abroad,  leaving  an  infant  child. 

Margaret  Foley  is  more  known  by  her  wonderful  statue 
of  "  Jeremiah,"  and  later  works  of  the  sculptor's  art  in 
Italy,  where  she  spent  many  years.  She  was  spending 
the  summer  in  the  Tyrol  with  her  friends,  the  daughters 
of  William  and  Mary  Howitt,  and  died  suddenly  there. 

Within  a  short  time  a  school  has  been  established  in 
New  York,  for  teaching  women  the  art  of  designing  for 
carpet-weaving.  Mrs.  Florence  E.  Cory  is  the  Principal, 
and  Miss  Florence  E.  Densmore,  daughter  of  Dr.  Anna 
D.  French,  is  one  of  the  instructors.  The  school  is  in 
successful  operation. 

The  "  Phrenological  Journal  "  says  :  "  MBS.  FLOR- 
ENCE E.  GOBY,  of  New  York,  is  credited  with  receiving 
1  Eminent  "Women  of  the  Age. 


304  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

$4,000  a  year  for  designs  for  carpets.  She  very  aptly 
says  that  there  is  a  wide  field  in  this  direction  for  the 
employment  of  woman's  taste  and  skill.  She  makes  de- 
signs for  various  houses  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
and  is  paid  according  to  their  value." 


CHAPTER    XL 


WOMEN  LECTURERS. 


Mary  A.  Livermore — Anna  E.  Dickinson  —  Abby  Kelley  Foster  — 
Elizabeth  K.  Churchill  —  Frances  E.  W.  Harper  —  Sojourner  Truth 
—  Mary  F.  Eastman,  &c. 

"  So  may  she  brighten  all  the  world,  so  move  the  world's  great  heart, 
And  bear  in  every  generous  thought  and  every  deed  her  part. 
If  ye  would  teach  her  soul  aright,  clip  not  its  pinions  strong, 
But  give  them  to  God's  open  sky,  in  frequent  flight  and  long." 

"  WOMAN,"  by  MARY  M.  CHASE. 


"  So  speak  ye,  and  so  do, ! 
JAMES  ii.  12. 


i  they  that  shall  be  judged  by  the  law  of  liberty."  — 


MARY  A.  LIVERMORE  stands  at  the  head  of  the 
women  lecturers  of  the  world.  In  truth,  there 
are  many  of  both  sexes  in  our  land  who  would  not 
hesitate  an  instant  to  declare  that  no  man  can  hold  an 
audience  as  she  can,  and  startle  one  with  the  combina- 
tion of  characteristics  as  a  speaker,  that  have  been  seen 
in  few  speakers  of  any  land  before.  The  weight  of 

395 


306  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

her  logic,  the  storehouse  of  facts  displaying  a  marvel- 
lous memory,  the  sparkle  of  her  humor,  the  power  of  her 
pathos,  the  magic  of  her  tones,  her  fearlessness,  her  en- 
durance, her  magnetic  influence,  all  combine  to  make 
her,  as  a  lecturer  and  woman,  a  marvel  of  the  age. 
This  is  the  language  of  sober  conviction,  not  of  person- 
al preference.  It  is  not  eulogy  nor  panegyric  run  wild, 
but  solemn  truth ;  and  a  sense  of  devout  thanksgiving 
for  such  a  champion  of  truth  dwells  in  many  hearts, 
while  the  prayer  goes  up  from  East  and  West,  from 
North  and  South,  wherever  true,  cultured  Christian 
women  dwell,  "  God  bless  and  keep  long  in  the  lec- 
ture-field that  advocate  of  right  thinking  and  pure  liv- 
ing, —  Mary  Ashton  Livermore."  She  was  born  in  Bos- 
ton, Dec.  19, 1821 ;  was  early  a  teacher,  having  been 
a  pupil  also  in  the  Charlestown  Female  Seminary; 
taught  afterwards  as  a  governess  at  the  South,  then  in 
a  school  at  Duxbury,  where  she  first  met  Rev.  Daniel 
P.  Livermore,  her  husband,  and  through  his  instruc- 
tions became  a  partaker  in  liberal  religious  views,  and 
afterward  rendered  efficient  aid  to  the  Universalist  de- 
nomination, and  to  Christians  generally,  as  associate 
editor  of  his  paper,  "  The  New  Covenant."  "  The  La- 
dies' Repository  "for  January,  1868,  contains  a  biograph- 
ical sketch  of  this  remarkable  woman  of  the  first  cen- 
tury, written  by  Rev.  J.  S.  Dennis,  who,  after  speaking 
of  her  faithful  service  in  the  war  as  an  angel  of  mercy 
in  camp  and  hospital,  adds,  "  Through  her  skill  and 
influence,  mainly,  ten  Sanitary  Fairs  were  inaugurated, 
from  which  alone  nearly  half  a  million  dollars  were 
cleared."  There  is  a  sketch  of  her  work  in  Brackett's 
"  Women  of  the  Civil  War ; "  but  a  full  statement  of  her 
industry  and  genius  and  influence  has  never  yet  been 
made.  In  the  "  Watchman  and  Reflector  "  of  Boston 


MRS.   M  \RY   A.    LIVERMORE. 


WOMEN  LECTTJBEBS.  309 

Appeared  a  sketch  by  Virginia  F.  Townsend  (herself  a 
writer  of  great  ability),  which,  as  a  graphic  picture  of 
the  great  lecturer  and  her  pleasant  home  surround- 
ings, has  been  warmly  welcomed.  It  is  entitled, — 

A  NIGHT  AT  THE  HOME  OF  MARY  A.  LIVERMORE. 

"  '  Melrose ! '  shouted  the  conductor.  I  was  out  on 
the  platform  in  a  moment,  with  the  rest  of  the  human 
packages  staring  curiously  up  and  down  the  quaint  old 
town,  which  strikes  one  at  first  sight  as  comfortably 
taking  its  ease  and  the  world  at  large  in  a  peaceful,  Rip- 
Van-Winkle  sort  of  atmosphere.  Melrose,  however,  is 
only  seven  miles  from  Boston,  and,  despite  the  air  of 
serene  respectability  with  which  it  confronts  a  stranger, 
must  come  in  for  its  share  in  the  seasoning  of  Attic 
salt,  and  no  doubt,  get  to  the  heart  of  it,  is  well  tinc- 
tured with  heresies  and  radicalism.  It  was  the  late 
afternoon  of  one  of  those  June  days  Lowell  sings 
about  so  felicitously,  when  I  made  my  way  through  the 
shadows  of  the  pleasant,  dreamy  old  street  to  the  home 
across  whose  threshold  I  was  now  to  pass  for  the  first 
tune. 

"  A  soft,  poetic  sunshine  was  on  leaves  and  flowers : 
there  were  hushes  of  winds  among  locusts  and  maples, 
and  the  sweet  twitter  of  robins  through  the  stillness, 
when  I  found  myself  at  the  house  where  I  was  to 
pass  the  night.  A  quiet,  unpretending  New  England 
home  stood  before  me,  finished  up  in  brown,  even  to 
the  blinds,  a  veranda  across  the  front,  and  June  roses 
in  a  very  glee  and  riot  of  blossoming,  —  the  extreme 
simplicity  of  the  whole  in  fine  harmony  with  the  old 
town  and  the  shadowy  street,  even  though  the  presid- 
ing divinity  here  was  the  strong,  earnest,  intent  soul  of 
Mary  A.  Livermore.  I  may  as  well  say  at  this  point 


310  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

that,  measured  by  hours  and  interviews,  we  were  al- 
most strangers  to  each  other.  A  brief  meeting  or  two, 
a  letter  sent  me  when  the  heart  of  the  writer  was  at 
white  heat  with  the  work  and  the  glory  of  the  Chicago 
Sanitary  Fair,  comprised  our  personal  acquaintance ;  yet, 
despite  this  fact,  I  was  certain  that  hostess  and  guest 
would  meet  to-night  not  as  strangers  do.  If  one  does 
not  feel  at  home  with  the  first  glance  at  the  house,  one 
is  certain  to  the  moment  he  is  across  the  threshold. 

"  The  parlor  which  received  me  was  a  place  to  dream 
in  for  a  day,  with  pictures  and  engravings,  and  pretty 
brackets  that  gave  color  and  grace  and  a  certain  artis- 
tic effect  to  the  whole  room,  while  that  subtle  charm 
of  a  real  home  atmosphere  brooded  over  all.  I  had  ex- 
pected to  find  in  Mrs.  Livermore  a  good  housekeeper. 
Indeed,  come  to  think  of  it,  I  never  knew  a  literary 
woman,  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word,  who  did  not 
prove  herself  in  her  own  home  a  capable  domestic 
'  manager ; '  and,  having  been  in  more  than  one  of 
these  homes,  I  am,  despite  the  traditional  blue  stock- 
ing, entitled  to  speak  ex  cathedrd  on  this  matter.  My 
own  room,  too,  when  I  went  into  it,  proved  the  very 
4  pink  essence '  of  order  and  comfort,  with  pictures  and 
brackets  again,  and  delicate  little  artistic  touches 
everywhere.  I  sat  down  by  the  window,  too  content 
for  any  thing  but  watching  the  sunshine  in  the  cherry 
and  locust  trees  outside,  and  waited,  but  not  long. 
There  was  a  rap  at  the  door,  —  no  soft,  appealing  nutter 
of  fingers,  but  prompt,  strong,  decisive ;  and,  getting 
up,  I  confronted  Mrs.  Livermore.  She  has  a  tall,  dig- 
nified, matronly  presence,  an  earnest,  intent,  attractive 
face,  with  a  smile  that  comes  suddenly  and  breaks  up 
the  gravity  with  a  sweet  archness,  with  a  voice  full  of 
a  clear,  ringing  helpfulness  and  decision  :  and  the  more 


WOMEN  LECTURERS.  311 

you  see  of  her  the  more  you  grow  into  a  sense  of  her 
reserve  force  and  her  wonderful  magnetic  power,  and 
comprehend  what  a  shrewd  physician  meant  when  he 
said,  '  The  Lord  made  you  up,  Mrs.  Livermore,  to  do  a 
big  job  of  work  in  this  world.'  '  I  should  have  come 
to  you  at  once,'  she  said,  with  her  cordial  warmth  of 
speech  and  manner ;  '  but  my  husband's  congregation 
at  Hingham  gave  us  a  reception  yesterday,  and  this 
morning  I  was  obliged  to  take  the  six-o'clock  train  into 
Boston,  to  see  to  the  getting  out  of  the  paper;  so, 
when  I  learned  you  were  coming,  I  primed  myself 
with  a  couple  of  hours'  sleep.'  We  took  our  supper 
alone  together  that  night.  A  silver  goblet  stood  at 
my  plate ;  and  when  I  had  taken  my  first  draught  Mrs. 
Livermore  remarked,  '  That  goblet  was  given  me  by 
the  soldiers  at  the  Chicago  Sanitary  Fair.'  Perhaps  I 
was  unusually  thirsty  that  night :  at  any  rate,  it  seemed 
to  me,  as  I  drained  the  goblet,  that  no  water  had  ever 
tasted  so  sweet.  The  silver  was  simple  enough,  with 
its  chasing  and  Latin  inscriptions :  but  it  spoke  to  me 
of  weary  journeys  through  days  and  nights  in  'mud- 
spankers,'  over  the  wide,  lonely  plains  of  the  North- 
west; of  burdens  under  which  a  strong  man  might 
well  have  faltered,  together  with  calm,  unflinching 
courage ;  of  wounded  men  in  dreary  hospitals,  starting 
at  the  sound  of  the  clear,  helpful  voice,  and  glancing 
up  with  tearful  joy  as  that  woman's  shadow  fell  into 
their  pain  and  loneliness. 

"  Before  we  had  finished  our  supper,  Mr.  Livermore 
entered,  —  a  fine-looking,  rather  portly  gentleman,  who 
evidently  has  a  relish  for  a  joke,  and  a  profound  faith 
in  looking  on  the  brightest  side  of  things.  He 
reminded  me  of  some  jolly  English  squire,  who  would 
enjoy  riding  to  cover  in  the  dew  and  sunshine  of  an 


312  WOMEN  OF  THE  OENTUJ4Y. 

autumn  morning,  and  spurring  on  horse  and  hound  to 
the  chase  with  the  bravest;  but  he  is  in  reality  the 
pastor  of  a  Universalist  church  at  Hingham.  *  We 
exchange  works  sometimes,'  said  his  wife,  with  a 
laugh.  '  When  there  is  a  high  pressure  of  business  on 
me,  he  obligingly  spares  me  the  trouble  of  writing  an 
editorial ;  and,  in  turn,  I  occasionally  preach  for  him.' 
Despite  the  appalling  fact  that  his  wife  is  an  editor,  a 
lecturer,  an  occasional  preacher,  and  a  leader  in  the 
Woman's  Rights  movement,  nobody  seeing  them  half 
an  hour  together  could  doubt  that  the  Hingham  pastor 
was  a  proud  and  happy  husband. 

"  After  supper  we  went  over  the  house ;  and  Mrs. 
Livermore  took  me  into  her  sanctum,  a  quiet  little 
nook,  and  as  orderly  as  Sir  Walter  Scott's  library  at 
Abbotsford.  From  the  back  windows,  the  idyl  of  Mrs. 
Livermore's  home  burst  suddenly  upon  me  in  the  shape 
of  '  Crystal  Lake,'  a  delicious  little  sheet  of  water  on 
whose  shores  her  house  stands.  It  was  just  at  sunset, 
and  the  winds  were  out,  and  there  was  a  very  dazzle 
of  silver  waves  along  the  banks,  as  I  first  caught  sight 
of  the  little  lake  between  its  low-lying  shores.  Here, 
too,  lay  a  dainty  little  row-boat,  just  fitted  for  the  fairy 
stream  it  was  to  navigate. 

"But  the  cream  of  the  evening  was  yet  to  come. 
At  last  we  were  quietly  settled  down  in  Mrs.  Liver- 
more's own  room,  for  the  '  talk '  we  had  been  so  long 
promising  ourselves.  It  was  a  talk,  which,  following  no 
law,  glanced  all  over  Mrs.  Livermore's  life.  The  stately 
matron  was  again  a  child,  with  Copp's  Hill  Cemetery 
for  her  playground,  and  without  a  fear  of  the  quiet 
sleepers  under  her  riotous  sport.  She  drew  herself 
a  wild,  impetuous,  overflowing  4  tomboy '  of  a  girl, 
brimming  with  fun  and  mischief;  the  strong,  native, 


WOMEN  LECTURERS.  313 

vital  forces  in  her  bringing  her  forever  to  grief,  yet 
never  permanently  checked ;  the  champion  always  of 
the  poor  and  friendless;  and  a  strange,  underlying 
sadness  getting  sometimes  to  the  surface  through  all 
the  boisterous  mirth  and  mischief.  This  woman  was 
evidently  cut  on  a  grand  pattern  from  the  beginning. 
The  royal  Hebrew's  injunction  of  '  not  sparing  the  rod ' 
was  faithfully  observed  in  the  training  of  the  eager, 
intense,  tumultuous  New  England  girl.  She  was  sent 
supperless  to  bed ;  she  was  defrauded  of  that  crowning 
treasure  and  delight  of  childhood,  Saturday  afternoon ; 
she  was  scolded  at  and  urged ;  and  she  cried  herself 
sick,  or  would  if  any  such  thing  had  been  possible  to 
the  fibre  that  went  to  the  making  of  the  stout,  robust 
little  figure,  and  wished  she  was  dead ;  and  then  broke 
the  cords  which  held  her  a  prisoner  in  the  chair,  and, 
mounting  that,  made  if  serve  for  a  pulpit,  and  preached 
to  the  walls,  warning  sinners  to  '  flee  from  the  wrath 
to  come,'  while  father  and  mother  would  stand  listen- 
ing outside  in  amused  bewilderment  at  the  child's 
passionate  eloquence.  Sometimes,  too,  the  old  Baptist 
deacon  would  look  mournfully  at  his  daughter,  and  say, 
*  If  you  had  only  been  a  boy,  Mary,  what  a  preacher 
in  that  case  you  would  have  made  !  I  would  certainly 
have  educated  you  for  the  ministry,  and  what  a  world 
of  good  you  might  have  done  ! '  But  it  never  so  much 
as  entered  the  Boston  deacon's  heart  that  this  strange, 
impulsive,  fiery  little  soul,  whose  sex  he  so  keenly 
deplored,  had  her  own  work  to  do  in  the  world,  and 
would  yet  hold  vast  masses  breathless  under  the  power 
of  her  logic,  the  magic  charm  of  her  eloquence.  But 
the  years  went  on,  and  the  Boston  deacon's  daughter 
grew  into  girlhood  and  womanhood,  with  her  marvel- 
lous energy,  with  her  keen,  alert  mind,  with  her 


314  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTFRr. 

hungry  greed  of  knowledge,  with  her  swift  scorn  of 
sophistries,  but  with  the  warm,  generous  heart,  a  little 
steadied  with  the  gathering  years,  as  swift  and  helpful 
now  as  in  those  old  days  when  it  danced  in  Copp's 
burying-ground,  and  was  the  champion  of  all  the  poor, 
neglected  children. 

'"When  we  were  married,'  said  Mrs.  Livermore, 
with  that  humor  whose  current  plays  and  sparkles 
through  all  the  earnestness  of  her  talk,  'our  capital 
consisted  of  books.  I  did  all  my  own  work.  I  cut 
and  made  my  husband's  coats  and  pants.  There  is  no 
kind  of  housework  with  which  I  am  not  familiar.  I 
defy  anybody  to  rival  me  in  that  line.  My  drawers, 
my  closets,  my  whole  house,  are  always  free  for  inspec- 
tion.' 

"  It  is  marvellous,  when  you  come  to  think  of  it,  the 
amount  of  mental  and  physical  strain  which  this 
woman  manages  to  undergo.  There  is  the  constant 
wear  and  tear  of  nerve  and  brain.  For  three  weeks  at 
a  time,  during  the  lecture  season,  she  assures  me  she 
has  not  slept  on  a  bed,  except  such  poor  substitutes  of 
one  as  lounges  on  cars  and  steamboats  afford.  Even 
during  the  summer  her  engagements  are  so  numerous, 
that  the  evening  I  passed  with  her  was  the  solitary  one 
she  could  command  for  the  ensuing  month.  She  was 
to  speak  in  a  few  days  in  Clinton,  N.Y.,  and  to  lecture 
before  the  graduating  class  of  the  divinity  school  in 
Canton;  this  being  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
American  institutions  that  such  an  honor  has  been 
awarded  to  a  woman.  Add  to  this  her  constant  read- 
ing, her  duties  as  chief  editress  of  the  '  Woman's  Jour- 
nal,' the  letters  that  must  be  answered,  the  ocean  of 
manuscripts  that  must  be  waded  through.  One  cannot 
help  sympathizing  with  the  sentiment  of  the  distich, 


"WOMEN  LECTURERS.  815 

which  she  quoted  to  me  as  a  sample  of  the  avalanche 
of  rhyme  which  poured  down  on  '  The  Woman's  Jour- 
nal : '  — 

'Art  thou  not  tired,  my  dear  M.  A.  L., 
Working  forever,  so  hard  and  so  -well? ' 

k  There  were  actually  four  pages  in  this  key,'  she  said. 
Of  course  no  woman  could  bear  all  this  physical  and 
mental  strain- without  the  foundation  of  an  admirable 
physique.  With  few  exceptions  she  has  always 
enjoyed  splendid  health.  The  stamina  of  her  Puritan 
grandmother  seems  to  have  been  bequeathed  unweak- 
ened  to  Mary  A.  Livermore.  Then  there  are  the  con- 
stant claims  on  her  time  and  charity.  As  an  instance 
in  point,  one  year  she  found  homes  for  thirty  three 
children  worse  than  orphans. 

" '  I  never  in  my  life,'  she  said,  '  turned  anybody 
away  who  came  to  me  for  help.  I  never  wilfully 
wronged  a  human  being.'  How  few  of  us  could,  in  our 
inmost  souls,  say  these  words  ! 

"  I  cannot  forbear  here,  even  at  the  risk  of  making 
this  article  too  long,  quoting  an  adventure  which  Mrs. 
Livermore  related  to  me,  as  occurring  on  the  Missouri 
during  her  last  lecturing-tour,  while  the  Missouri  was 
at  flood-tide.  A  sudden  rise  of  the  river  had  rendered 
it  impossible  for  steamboats  to  cross  during  the  day. 
Mrs.  Livermore  was  engaged  to  lecture  that  night  in  a 
town  on  the  opposite  shore.  After  dark  a  crowded 
steamer  undertook  the  passage.  A  terrible  gale  was 
blowing  at  this  time,  and  the  steamer  rocked  on  the 
river,  while  every  timber  creaked  and  shivered  in  the 
awful  wind.  The  smokestacks  were  soon  blown 
down.  As  is  frequently  the  case  on  Western  rivers, 
the  steamer  was  in  charge  of  a  rough,  drunken  crew, 


316  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

and  now  in  a  panic  they  rushed  among  the  passen- 
gers, shouting,  '  Boat's  afire !  She  will  go  like  tinder  in 
fifteen  minutes.'  Of  course  a  terrible  scene  ensued. 
In  the  gale  and  in  the  darkness,  with  the  river  at 
flood-tide,  the  cry  of  the  crew  was  only  too  true, — 
the  steamer  was  actually  on  fire.  The  men  were 
white  with  fear ;  the  women  shrieked  and  fainted,  the 
children  sobbed.  In  the  midst  of  all  this  clamor  one 
woman  stood  quite  calm.  *  I  was  unconscious,'  said 
Mrs.  Livermore,  '  of  a  thrill  of  fear.  I  had  a  solemn 
conviction  that  I  should  not  be  drowned.'  She  quietly 
disengaged  herself  from  her  heaviest  wrappings,  in  case 
the  worst  should  come.  A  remark  which  she  had 
heard  a  little  while  before  came  back  in  that  moment 
of  peril.  « Whoever  falls  into  the  Missouri  will  not 
only  be  drowned,  but  buried.'  She  looked  at  the  dark, 
swollen  mass  of  waters,  and  resolved  that,  God  helping 
her,  if  she  found  herself  in  the  midst,  even  then  she 
would  not  despair,  she  would  not  lose  her  presence  of 
mind,  but  hold  herself  up  as  best  she  could,  and  not  go 
down  to  be  buried  in  the  mud  of  the  Missouri. 

"  But  that  wonderful  courage  was  not  put  to  the  last 
test:  the  fire  was  extinguished,  the  steamer  outrode 
the  gale,  and,  when  it  reached  the  shore,  the  men  gath- 
ered with  loud  praises  about  the  woman  who  had 
carried  herself  so  bravely  through  the  peril. 

"  But  for  her,  she  went  straight  to  the  hall,  and  lec- 
tured to  a  crowd  that  evening.  That  night,  however, 
at  the  hotel,  Mrs.  Livermore  sprang  up  seven  times 
from  her  sleep  into  the  middle  of  her  chamber,  crying 
out  with  terror  that  the  boat  was  on  fire. 

"  Amid  our  talk  there,  shine  two  sentences  of  my 
hostess  which  have  come  back  to  me  so  often,  and 
which  seem  two  such  clear  crystals  of  truth,  that  I 


WOMEN   LECTURERS.  317 

cannot  choose  but  write  them  here.  One  was,  '  A 
divine  discontent  must  pursue  all  human  lives;'  and 
the  other,  '  Life  is  lonely  to  every  soul.' 

"  But  the  pleasantest  hours  have  an  end ;  and  we 
were  on  the  flood-tide  of  our  talk,  and  Mrs.  Livermore 
wore  the  look  of  an  inspired  sibyl,  and  the  hours  were 
wearing  towards  midnight,  when  the  Hingham  pastor, 
with  his  pleasant  face  and  his  air  of  the  English  squire, 
broke  in  upon  us,  saying  quietly  that  to-morrow  would 
demand  too  heavy  a  toll  for  the  night's  lost  sleep,  and 
he  must  send  us  to  bed.  I  entreated  him  to  furnish  us 
with  some  cordial  that  would  hold  us  awake  for  the 
precious  hours  of  that  one  night ;  but  it  was  evident 
that  his  pharmacy  yielded  no  such  inspiring  draught, 
and  his  wife  —  I  must  tell  the  honest  truth  —  seemed 
disposed  to  '  obey '  him  with  as  much  meekness 
and  alacrity  as  though  she  regarded  that  obnoxious 
verb  a  binding  part  of  the  marriage  covenant,  as 
though  she  had  never  stood  upon  a  platform,  or 
preached  from  a  pulpit,  or  gone  down  bravely  into 
the  hospitals  and  bound  the  quivering  limbs  of  poor, 
wounded  soldiers,  or  held-  a  cooling  draught  to  their 
fevered  lips,  nay,  even  as  though  the  woman  whom 
Boston  long  ago  gave  to  Chicago,  and  whom  Chicago, 
after  the  grand  work  of  the  Sanitary  Fair  was  accom- 
plished, gave  back  in  the  prime  of  her  womanhood  and 
the  ripeness  of  her  intellect  to  Boston,  had  never 
waved  the  banner  and  raised  the  war-cry  of  'The 
Woman's  Journal.' " 

Of  Mrs.  Livermore  mention  is  also  made  in  other 
chapters. 

ANNA  E.  DICKINSON  comes  next  to  Mrs.  Livermore 
as  a  lecturer.  There  are  some  who  consider  her  the 
''  leading  lady."  She  is  a  powerful,  magnetic  speaker. 


318  WOMEN    OF  THE  CENTURY. 

A  sketch  of  her  by  Mrs.  Stantoii,  in  the  "  Eminent 
Women  of  the  Age/'  will  afford  a  better  opportunity 
to  judge  of  her  efforts  and  success  than  this  chapter 
can  allow.  Space  must  be  found  for  this  tribute,  by 
Mrs.  Stanton,  to  her  nobleness  of  soul  and  life :  "  While 
so  many  truly  great  women,  of  other  times  and  coun- 
tries, have  marred  their  fair  names,  and  thrown  suspi- 
cion on  their  sex  by  vices  and  follies,  this  noble  girl, 
through  all  temptations  and  discouragements,  has  main- 
tained a  purity,  dignity,  and  moral  probity  of  charac- 
ter, that  reflect  honor  on  herself  and  glory  on  her 
whole  sex." 

She  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  Oct.  28,  1842.  Both 
parents  were  Quakers,  of  refinement  and  cultivation, 
earnest  in  their  advocacy  of  freedom,  and  rigid  adhe- 
rents to  the  Orthodox  Friends.  They  sought  to  train 
Anna  aright,  and  to  curb  her  indomitable  will, — 
through  the  triumph  of  which,  Mrs.  Stanton  says,  "we 
boast  to-day  that  the  most  popular  American  orator 
is  a  woman." 

"  During  all  her  school-days  she  read,  with  the  great- 
est avidity,  every  book  that  she  could  obtain.  News- 
papers, speeches,  tracts,  history,  biography,  poetry, 
novels,  and  fairy-tales  were  all  alike  read  and  relished. 
For  weeks  and  months  together,  her  average  hours  for 
deep  were  not  five  in  the  twenty-four.  She  would 
often  read  until  one  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  then 
seize  her  school-books  and  learn  her  lessons  for  the  next 
day.  She  did  not  study  her  lessons ;  for,  with  her  reten- 
tive memory,  what  she  read  once  was  hers  forever. 
The  rhymes  and  compositions  she  wrote  in  her  young 
days  bear  evident  marks  of  genius.  When  fourteen 
years  old,  she  published  an  article  headed  '  Slavery,'  in 
the  'Liberator.'  She  early- determined  that  she  would 


WOMEN    LECJTUEERS.  819 

be  a  public  speaker.  One  of  her  greatest  pleasures  was 
to  get  a  troop  of  children  about  her,  and  tell  them 
stories  :  if  she  could  fix  their  attention,  and  alternately 
convulse  them  with  laughter  and  melt  them  to  tears, 
she  was  perfectly  happy." 

Time  passed  on ;  and  through  poverty,  and  discour- 
agements of  various  kinds,  she  struggled  up  to  her 
proud  position  as  a  lecturer,  with  great  pecuniary  suc- 
cess, and  with  such  a  reputation  for  oratory  on  the 
political  platform,  as  neither  man  nor  woman  had  at- 
tained. She  saved  the  States  of  New  Hampshire  and 
Connecticut  to  the  Republican  party,  and  did  more  to 
secure  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  thence 
to  secure  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  than  any 
other  speaker  in  the  land.  She  received  ovations 
everywhere.  In  her  native  city,  where  once  she  had 
scrubbed  the  sidewalk  for  twenty-five  cents,  so  as  to  be 
able  to  get  a  ticket  to  Wendell  Phillips's  lecture  on  the 
"Lost  Arts,"  she  was  invited  to  speak  by  leading 
Republicans,  and  received  seven  hundred  dollars  for 
that  evening's  work. 

Since  those  days,  when  her  career  was  formed  and 
her  reputation  established,  the  "  glorious  girl "  has  lec- 
tured on  various  characteristic  and  timely  themes  all 
over  our  land,  with  the  greatest  success.  Mrs.  Stanton 
says,  "  There  have  been  many  speculations  in  public 
And  private  as  to  the  authorship  of  Anna  Dickin- 
son's speeches.  .  .  .  Those  who  know  Anna's  conversa- 
tional power,  —  who  have  felt  the  magnetism  of  her 
words  and  manners,  and  the  pulsations  of  her  generous 
heart,  who  have  heard  her  impromptu  replies  when 
assailed,  —  see,  at  once,  that  her  speeches  are  the  natural 
outgrowth  of  herself,  her  own  experience  and  philos- 
ophy, inspired  by  the  eventful  tunes  in  which  she  lived. 


320  WOMEN    OF   THE   CENTURY. 

As  well  ask  if  Joan  of  Arc  drew  her  inspiration  from 
the  warriors  of  her  day.  .  .  .  Her  heroic  courage,  in- 
domitable will,  brilliant  imagination,  religious  earnest- 
ness, and  prophetic  forecast  gave  her  an  utterance  that 
no  man's  thought  could  paint  or  inspire."1 

Within  a  short  time  Miss  Dickinson  has  chosen  the 
stage,  in  place  of  the  platform,  and  has  appeared  in 
several  cities  as  Anne  Boleyn,  in  the  play  called  "  The 
Crown  of  Thorns,"  written  by  herself.  She  has  writ- 
ten other  plays,  and  will  probably  make  for  herself  a 
unique  place  in  the  histrionic  ranks.  Many  regret  the 
change  from  the  rostrum  to  the  boards,  while  some 
think  she  will  add  new  laurels  to  those  already  won. 
The  matter  is  yet  undecided;  but  she  will  always  be 
best  known  as  a  lecturer,  whose  oratory  was  marvel- 
lous, and  whom  the  whole  country  delighted  to  honor. 

ELIZABETH  K.  CHUBCHILL  is  one  of  the  lecturers 
who  entered  the  field  to  speak  first  on  temperance, 
and  has  found  an  opportunity  to  plead  for  woman  suf- 
frage, and  various  branches  of  moral  reform,  with  elo- 
quence and  power.  She  has  a  clear  voice;  and  her 
remarks  are  pungent  with  wit  at  times,  and  always 
logical,  and  abounding  in  facts  and  illustrations.  Her 
home  is  in  Providence,  R.I.,  where  she  wrote  some  of 
her  attractive  little  volumes.  She  is  an  active  member 
of  the  board  of  directors  in  the  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Women ;  and  in  1876  was  chairman 
of  the  Committee  on  Industrial  Education,  presenting 
to  the  Congress  a  fine  paper  as  her  report. 

EDNAH  D.  CHENEY,  now  of  Boston,  Mass.,  is  well 
known  as  a  lecturer  on  various  themes  connected  with 
art  and  literature.  Adding,  to  the  culture  of  many 
years  of  study,  the  finish  of  foreign  travel  and  study 

1  Eminent  "Women  of  the  Age. 


WOMEN  LECTURERS.  321 

of  art  abroad,  the  genius  winch  makes  an  art  critic  and 
teacher,  she  has  achieved  a  fair  place  among  women 
lecturers.  Sometimes  speaking  on  moral  themes  upon 
the  Sabbath,  sometimes  holding  conversations,  especially 
in  the  West,  she  has  kept  busy  with  voice  as  well  as 
pen,  seeking  to  benefit  her  sex  and  the  race.  In  1872 
Mrs.  Cheney  delivered  a  course  of  lectures  on  English 
literature,  in  the  hall  of  the  Institute  of  Technology, 
which  were  very  acceptable. 

JANE  O.  DEFOREST  of  Norwalk,  O.,  is  an  efficient 
and  valuable  lecturer  on  woman  suffrage,  and  has 
three  lyceum  lectures  which  have  given  good  satisfac- 
tion, entitled  "  The  Morning  Dawns,"  "  The  Political 
Crisis,"  and  "  Popular  Evils."  The  press  of  Ohio 
gives  her  high  praise ;  one  paper  saying  of  her  lecture, 
"  It  uras  elegant,  eloquent,  and  logical ;  full  of  incon- 
trovertible truths,  sparkling  with  witty,  palpable  hits, 
and  spiced  with  a  vein  of  sarcasm.  It  had,  withal,  the 
remarkable  feature  of  offending  none,  but  pleased 
both  the  friends  and  foes  of  the  cause  the  lecturer 
advocates." 

ANNA  GARDNER  of  Nantucket  has  lectured,  with 
clear  voice  and  fine  enunciation,  acceptably  both  in  the 
North  and  South.  Her  themes  have  been  equal  rights, 
woman  suffrage,  and  the  education  of  the  colored  race. 
She  read  a  paper  on  the  ballot  for  woman  at  the 
Woman's  Congress  held  in  Philadelphia,  centennial 
year. 

HELEN  P.  JENKINS  of  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  is  said  to  be 
a  lady  of  rare  culture,  and  a  good  writer  and  speaker. 
She  lectured  on  the  woman  question  in  many  of  the 
larger  towns  in  Pennsylvania.  She  has  also  written  a 
series  of  instructive  epistles  for  the  press,  entitled  "A 
Mother's  Letters." 


322  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

SARAH  M.  C.  PERKINS  has  lectured  grandly  on  Mar- 
garet Fuller  and  Mary  Lyon.  She  will  be  mentioned 
among  the  women  preachers. 

ADA  C.  BOWLES  will  also  be  mentioned  in  the  chap- 
ter on  preachers.  "The  Framingham  Gazette"  said 
in  1872,  "The  recent  lecture  of  Mrs.  Bowles,  in 
Sudbury,  called  out  a  good  audience  of  all  classes  of 
our  citizens;  and  one  that  has  been  more  highly  or 
agreeably  entertained  for  an  hour  or  more  we  have  not 
seen  for  some  time.  Stepping  upon  the  platform  with 
that  free  and  graceful  manner  which  characterizes  cer- 
tain public  speakers,  the  lady,  both  by  her  fine  personal 
appearance  and  general  aptness  to  interest  and  please, 
at  once  commanded  the  close  attention  of  her  hearers, 
and  held  the  same  through  the  evening.  The  speaker, 
in  her  quiet,  refined  manner,  interested  all,  and  cer- 
tainly laid  a  just  claim  to  respect  from  friend  and  foe 
of  the  cause  she  so  ably  advocates." 

MARY  F.  EASTMAN,  of  Tewksbury,  Mass.,  is  begin- 
ning to  be  known  as  among  our  best  lyceum  lecturers. 
Her  future  as  a  speaker  will  be  brilliant  and  useful. 
"  The  Woman's  Journal  "  says  of  her  :  "  Highly  edu- 
cated, and  endowed  by  Nature  with  a  pleasing  address 
and  graceful  manner,  she  is  also  a  clear,  logical,  and 
forcible  speaker.  We  hope  that  her  three  lectures, 
entitled  respectively,  "Not  a  Public  Way  —  Danger- 
ous Passing,"  "  Lend  a  Hand,"  and  "  Ought  Women  to 
Want  to  Vote  ?  "  will  be  as  widely  known  as  they  are 
worthy  of  being  heard. 

MRS.  CALLANAN  of  Des  Moines,  la.,  is  regarded 
as  an  excellent  lecturer  on  reformatory  themes.  A 
Western  paper  speaks  of  her  lecture  on  "The  Lost 
Eights  of  Women"  as  a  "  quiet,  even-toned,  logical,  and 
dispassionate  presentation  of  some  of  the  considerations 
In  favor  of  extending  the  ballot  to  woman." 


WOMEN   LECTURERS.  32^ 

ABBA  G.  WOOLSON,  who  is  mentioned  elsewhere, 
lectures  with  great  eloquence  and  logical  power  on 
reformatory  subjects. 

CAROLINE  E.  HASTINGS,  a  physician,  lectured  in 
Boston  during  September,  1874,  on  various  physiologi- 
cal matters,  illustrating  her  remarks  with  charts,  mani- 
kins, and  models,  very  successfully. 

ANNA  DENSMORE  FRENCH,  M.D.,  of  New  York,  did 
the  same  in  Jersey  City  and  elsewhere.  The  writer 
heard  her  in  the  former  city,  and  could  but  wish  that 
every  intelligent  woman  in  America  could  listen  to  her 
lucid  explanations  of  the  anatomy  of  the  human  body, 
and  her  sensible  remarks  on  the  hygienic  conditions  and 
laws  which  appertain  to  "  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound 
body." 

ELIZABETH  A.  KINGSBURY,  besides  being  a  poetical 
contributor  to  "  The  Woman's  Journal "  and  other 
papers,  has  lectured  acceptably  on  "  The  Hercules  of 
the  Nineteenth  Century,"  "  A  Beautiful  Woman,"  and 
"  The  Law  of  Compensation." 

Mrs.  LYMAN  (the  wife  of  Prof.  Walter  C.  Lyman) 
has  lectured  with  success  on  "Nervous  Diseases."  The 
press  says  the  lecture  was  highly  interesting  and  instruc- 
tive. 

ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS  (elsewhere  mentioned) 
lectured  on  "  Representative  Modern  Fiction  "  in  Bos- 
ton University. 

Mrs.  BENTON,  late  of  the  Mt.  Lebanon  Mission  in 
Syria,  Asia,  lectures  on  the  customs  of  life  in  that  far- 
off  land  with  great  success.  An  editor  says,  "  Mrs. 
Benton  told  the  story  of  twenty  years'  life  in  the  Holy 
Land,  in  the  course  of  which  occurred  the  Druse  insur- 
rection of  1860.  The  story  of  a  missionary's  trials  and 
dangers,  his  successes  and  pleasures,  are  rarely  told 


324  WOMEN   OF   THE  CENTURY. 

more  spicily  than  by  Mrs.  Benton.  She  did  just  what 
she  promised  to  do ;  making  her  hearers  see  the  people 
of  whom  she  spoke,  in  all  the  peculiarities  of  their 
dress,  language,  and  customs." 

MABY  S.  CLAEK,  who  has  been  a  teacher  in  the 
employ  of  the  Methodist  mission  in  Mississippi,  has 
lectured  in  Richmond,  Ind.,  and  elsewhere,  on  political 
themes. 

LAURA  DE  FORCE  GORDON  is  mentioned  among 
Western  women  as  a  good  lecturer  on  "  The  Woman 
Question  from  a  Religious  Standpoint."  She  is  re- 
garded as  a  fine  writer  and  speaker. 

HTJLDA  B.  LOUD  of  Abington,  Mass.,  has  proved 
herself  a  valuable  helper  in  reform  by  her  eloquent 
lectures.  A  Berkshire  paper  speaks  of  her  style  as 
original  and  forcible,  and  calculated  to  draw  the  careful 
attention  of  the  audience.  A  Greenfield  paper  says  of 
her,  "  Miss  Loud  has  oratorical  ability,  a  pure,  clear 
voice,  modest  manner,  earnest  and  convincing  presence. 
Her  language  was  finished,  and  free  from  bombast  and 
trivialities.  With  more  experience  she  will  distinguish 
herself  as  one  of  the  most  earnest  and  effective  speak- 
ers among  the  advocates  of  the  great  cause  of  woman's 
enfranchisement." 

ANNIE  WITTENMEYER  (elsewhere  mentioned)  lec- 
tures on  "  Woman's  Work  in  the  Christian  Church," 
and  Mrs.  VAN  COTT,  the  evangelist  (elsewhere  men- 
tioned), on  "The  Winecup  and  the  Altar."  LIZZIE 
BOYNTON  HARBERT  is  a  vigorous  and  acceptable  lec- 
turer on  "  Woman  Suffrage."  Her  home  is  in  Iowa, 
where  she  was  married  Nov.  18, 1870 ;  at  which  time 
one  of  the  Indianapolis  papers  said,  after  a  graphic 
notice"  of  the  brilliant  ceremony,  "  In  common  with 
other  ladies  prominently  before  the  public,  she  has  been 


WOMEN  LECTURERS.  325 

adjudged  as  one  of  those  '  dreadful  strong-minded 
females,'  too  anxious  for  suffrage  and  office  to  care 
any  thing  about  matrimony,  or  that  domestic  heaven 
which  true  women  are  supposed  to  love  above  all  things 
else.  But  a  woman  more  refined,  with  a  gentler  heart, 
or  tastes  and  loves  more  domestic,  than  this  same  gifted 
girl,  does  not  live.  Her  writings,  through  all  of  which 
is  a  pervading  sense  of  soul,  and  graceful  charm  of  ten- 
derness, bear  witness  to  this  ;  and  her  position  in  social 
circles,  where  she  has  ever  been  one  of  society's 
queens,  attests  it.  Added  to  this  is  her  well-known 
reputation  to  make  and  bake  more  and  better  kinds  of 
bread  and  cake  than  any  girl  in  the  Hoosier  State." 

MIRIAM  M.  COLE  is  one  of  the  most  graceful  writers 
and  lecturers  on  woman  suffrage  in  the  West.  Cul- 
tured and  eloquent,  pleasing  in  manner  and  convincing 
in  matter,  she  is  a  valuable  addition  to  any  corps  of 
speakers  or  writers.  She  is  of  New  England  birth,  and 
now  resides  in  a  lovely  home  in  western  Ohio,  with  a 
husband  who  believes  in  woman's  rights,  and  to  whom 
Mrs.  Burleigh  referred  with  compliment  in  her  article 
on  Mrs.  Cole  as  one  of  the  "people  worth  knowing."  l 

H.  M.  TRACY  CUTLER  (elsewhere  mentioned)  is  a 
noble  woman  and  welcome  lecturer.  The  Grimke 
sisters  (Angelina  and  Sarah)  and  Abby  Kelly  Foster 
are  to  be  named  among  the  most  weighty  lecturers  on 
reform. 

LILY  PECKHAM,  sweet  girl  lecturer  and  preacher, 
has  gone  to  the  land  of  light  and  peace,  leaving  a 
tender,  blessed  memory. 

MARTHA  A.  STETSON'IS  thus  mentioned  as  a  woman 
orator  in  "  The  Woman's  Journal,"  by  a  Washington 
correspondent :  "  Dignified  and  commanding  in  appear- 

i  Woman's  Journal,  Dec.  31,  1870,  Vol.  I.,  No.  62. 


326  WOMEN   OF   THE   CENTURY. 

ance,  this  eloquent  Avoman  for  more  than  an  hour  dis- 
coursed to  her  audience  concerning  the  '  Soul  and 
Biographers  of  Robert  Burns,'  interspersing  her  lecture 
with  apt  recitations,  which  she  executed  in  an  admira- 
ble manner.  All  were  delighted  and  charmed."  The 
lecturer  is  said  to  be  of  Massachusetts  origin. 

FRANCES  E.  W.  HARPER  is  one  of  the  most  eloquent 
women  lecturers  in  the  country.  As  one  listens  to  her 
clear,  plaintive,  melodious  voice,  and  follows  the  flow 
of  her  musical  speech  in  her  logical  presentation  of 
truth,  he  can  but  be  charmed  with  her  oratory  and 
rhetoric,  and  forgets  that  she  is  of  the  race  once  en- 
slaved in  our  land.  She  is  one  of  the  colored  women 
of  whom  white  women  may  be  proud,  and  to  whom 
the  abolitionists  can  point  and  declare  that  a  race  which 
could  show  such  women  never  ought  to  have  been  held 
in  bondage.  She  lectures  on  temperance,  equal  rights, 
and  religious  themes,  and  has  shown  herself  able  in 
the  use  of  the  pen. 

MARIA  MITCHELL  has  lectured  at  Swarthmore  College 
and  elsewhere  on  astronomical  subjects.  "  The  Anti- 
slavery  Standard  "  in  1870  spoke  highly  of  her  lecture 
on  "  The  Great  Bear,"  and  added  the  hope  that  her 
course  of  lectures  at  Swarthmore  would  "  prove  the  ini- 
tiative to  a  broad  and  developed  field  for  the  exercise  of 
her  talents,  and  the  diffusion  of  her  astronomical 
knowledge." 

Among  those  who  have  lectured  on  the  woman 
question,  may  be  mentioned  DORA  V.  STODDARD  of 
Massachusetts,  a  young  woman  who  was  termed  earnest 
and  pleasing  in  speech,  by  the  local  press.  "  The 
Woman's  Journal  " l  thus  refers  to  another  woman 
lecturer:  "  Miss  S.  E,  STRICKLAND  of  Vineland,  N.J., 

1  Of  Aug.  12, 1871. 


WOMEN   LECTURERS.  327 

made  an  excellent  impression  as  a  lyceum  lecturer  last 
winter.  Wherever  she  spoke  she  was  received  with 
enthusiasm,  and  made  many  warm  frieiids.  She  is  a 
woman  of  education,  of  industry,  and  of  ideas.  She 
speaks  extempore  with  clearness  and  vigor,  and  enlivens 
her  subjects  with  a  rich  fund  of  anecdotes,  pungent  hu- 
mor, and  scathing  sarcasm.  Her  lectures  hitherto  have 
been  on  '  The  Failing  Health  of  American  Women,' 
and  *  Why  I  Want  to  Vote.'  She  has  just  completed  a 
new  lecture,  entitled,  *  What  a  Woman  can  Do.'  By 
birth  she  is  a  Massachusetts  women,  and  for  a  number 
of  years  was  a  teacher  in  the  schools  at  Springfield  and 
Cambridge,  and  afterwards  at  Newark,  N.  J.  For 
several  years  she  has  been  a  practical  farmer  at  Vine- 
land,  growing  fruits  and  vegetables  on  her  own  farm 
by  the  labor  of  her  own  hands.  She  can  tell  what  a 
woman  can  do  if  anybody  can.  Lyceum  committees 
may  be  sure  of  satisfaction,  when  Miss  Strickland 
appears  on  their  platforms."  This  notice  is  printed  in 
full  as  a  deserved  tribute  to  the  memory  of  one  who 
has  since  passed  to  the  other  life. 

The  blind  woman  speaker,  "  Mrs.  S.  H.  DEKnoTFT, 
familiarly  known  as  '  The  Blind  Authoress,'  is  of  the 
seventh  generation  from  the  distinguished  Quaker, 
George  Aldrich,  who  came  to  this  country  in  1630,  with 
a  company  of  his  persecuted  people. 

"  Mrs.  DeKroyft,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Obed  Aldrich, 
was  born  a  little  west  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  hard  by 
the  picturesque  and  famous  cataract  known  as  Genesee 
Falls.  When  she  was  but  thirteen  years  of  age  her 
father  became  involved  by  indorsing  for  a  friend,  and 
then  began  with  her  the  stern  battle  of  life. 

"  At  the  early  age  of  fifteen  years  she  conceived  the 
idea  of  obtaining  that  higher  education  for  which  her 


328  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTUEY. 

soul  thirsted  by  teaching  winters,  and  attending  the 
Lima  Seminary  summers.  In  this  way  she  toiled  for 
seven  years,  mastered  two  foreign  languages,  completed 
Davies'  mathematical  course ;  and  familiarized  herself 
with  nearly  the  whole  circle  of  modern  science. 

"  Soon  after  leaving  school,  Mrs.  De  Kroyft  was  mar- 
ried to  a  young  physician  of  Rochester,  who,  injured  by 
a  fall  from  a  carriage,  died  on  the  evening  of  their 
wedding-day.  And  then  not  quite  a  month  after  she 
awoke  to  find  that  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  had  indeed 
gone  down  upon  her  young  life  to  rise  no  more.  Thus 
the  ideal  creations  and  plots  of  the  romancist  are  fre- 
quently surpassed  by  the  startling  phenomena  of  real 
life.  Bruised  but  not  broken  by  the  double  blow  of 
misfortune,  Mrs.  DeKroyft's  courage  soon  shaped  itself 
into  the  resolute  purpose  of  making  her  education 
serve  her.  Finding  at  the  institution  for  the  blind  in 
New  York  the  means  of  writing,  her  eloquent  produc- 
tions were  not  long  making  their  way  into  the  paper. 
In  1850  her  first  work,  *  A  Place  in  Thy  Memory,'  was 
published;  This  fairly  introduced  her  to  the  literary 
world  ;  and  to  quote  her  own  words,  '  using  it  for 
spending  money,'  she  has  visited  almost  every  civilized 
portion  of  this  continent.  Shortly  after  the  publica- 
tion of  her  work,  leaving  New  York  for  Washington, 
Mrs.  DeKroyft  bore  with  her  letters  from  many  of  our 
most  distinguished  citizens,  to  such  men  as  Henry  Clay, 
Senator  Houston,  Sir  Henry  Bulwer,  Senator  Hale,  and 
others.  Her  departure  was  signalized  by  the  most  flat- 
tering notices  from  the  leading  metropolitan  journals ; 
and  while  at  the  Capitol  such  ladies  as  Mrs.  Ex-Presi- 
dent Madison,  Mrs.  Gen.  Hamilton,  Mrs.  Commodore 
Shubric,  Mrs.  Gen.  Ashley,  late  Mrs.  John  J.  Critten- 
ien,  &c.,  honored  her  with  their  friendship ;  and  leav- 


WOMEN   LECTURERS.  329 

Washington  for  Charleston  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
same  winter,  Pres.  Taylor,  in  a  letter  to  Mrs.  DeKroyft 
introducing  her  to  his  friends  in  the  South,  said,  — 

"  '  You  are  recommended  to  them  by  every  circum- 
stance which  can  add  interest  to  misfortune;  and  I 
gladly  bespeak  for  you  the  friendly  offices  of  the  pro- 
verbially generous  and  hospitable  community  which 
you  propose  to  visit.  The  members  of  my  family  join 
me  in  best  wishes  for  a  pleasant  journey.' 

"  Since  that  time  Mrs.  DeKroyft  has  been  almost  con- 
stantly travelling,  everywhere  holding  communion  with 
the  ablest  and  best  minds  of  the  age;  and  beside  thus 
growing  in  knowledge  and  culture  herself,  she  has 
achieved  by  her  labors  one  of  the  noblest  and  most 
self-sacrificing  life-works  possible  to  conceive.  More- 
over, devoting  her  leisure  to  study,  she  has  even  learned 
Latin  through  the  eyes  of  an  amanuensis,  and  listened 
to  Cicero's  orations  in  their  lofty  original ;  "husked" 
thousands  of  books  through  the  eyes  of  others,  written 
volumes  yet  unpublished ;  and  now,  on  her  entrance 
upon  the  rostrum,  she  has  won  for  her  oratorical  powers 
golden  opinion  that  the  most  practised  might  envy." 

Not  a  few  of  those  who  are  mentioned  among  the 
women  preachers,  OLYMPIA  BROWN,  PHEBE  A.  HAN- 
AFORD,  MARY  H.  GRAVES,  and  others,  are  lecturers 
also.  Mrs.  Brown  has  a  fine  lecture  on  "  Kansas,"  and 
her  experience  there  as  a  speaker.  Mrs.  Hanaford  has  a 
lecture  on  "  The  Woman  in  White  ;  or,  Margaret  Fuller 
as  a  Woman,  a  Writer,  and  a  Power,"  also  a  lecture  on 
"  Women  Soldiers ;  "  one  on  opportunities  and  possibili- 
ties, entitled  "Come  and  See;"  and  on  various  reforma- 
tory themes.  Women  known  among  reformers  and  as 
journalists  also  lecture.  Mrs  Julia  Ward  Ilowe  lec- 
tures on  literary  and  philosophic  themes,  and  for 


330  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

reforms.  Mrs.  Caroline  A.  Soule  has  lectured  on  tem- 
perance, in  our  own  land  and  in  Scotland.  In  short, 
the  name  is  legion  of  the  women  who  can  speak  to 
general  acceptance  and  profit.  The  only  regret  in 
closing  this  chapter  is  that  so  many  names  must  be 
omitted.  Some  will  appear  in  the  chapters  on  reform- 
ers and  preachers  and  physicians,  whose  names  will 
also  and  ever  be  gratefully  and  proudly  remembered 
as  lecturers.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  Susan  B.  An- 
thony, Lucy  Stone,  Frances  E.  Willard,  and  others,  are 
none  the  less  good  lecturers  for  being  classed  elsewhere 
in  this  volume,  as  those  who  are  mentioned  are  none 
the  less  able  to  do  good  service  to  humanity  in  other 
ways  than  by  speaking  on  the  platform.  America  in 
the  future  will  confess  that  she  owes  much,  very  much, 
to  her  speaking  women ;  and  when  the  hopes  of  her 
women  lecturers  reach  fruition,  in  the  grand  future  of 
other  centuries,  she  will  perceive  the  beauty  and  truth 
of  James  Martineau's  words,  "  When  speech  is  given 
to  a  soul  holy  and  true,  tune,  and  its  dome  of  ages, 
becomes  as  a  mighty  whispering-gallery,  round  which 
the  imprisoned  utterance  runs  and  reverberates  for- 
ever." Words  which  the  women  of  the  first  century 
have  uttered  will  echo  in  the  hearts  of  grateful  millions 
yet  to  be. 

Since  the  above  was  first  penned  Mrs.  Elizabeth  K. 
Churchill  and  Miss  S.  E.  Strickland  have  passed  away 
from  earth ;  but  the  memory  of  their  true  words,  bravely 
spoken,  will  long  survive. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

WOMEN    REFORMERS. 

Anti-Slavery  and  Temperance  Workers  —  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  — 
Lucy  Stone  —  Lucretia  Mott  —  Frances  Dana  Gage  —  Susan  B. 
Anthony — Frances  E.  Willard,  and  others. 

"  O  Esther !    Ruth !  cried  Minta :  after  all, 
'Tis  work  we  love,  and  work  we  long  to  do, 
But  always  better  work  and  better  still : 
Is  not  that  right  ambition  ?    The  good  God, 
Letting  us  labor,  makes  us  like  himself, 
Creator,  glad  in  his  accomplished  work, 
Ever  beginning;  perfect  evermore." 

LUCY  LAKCOM'S  Idyl  of  Work. 

"  There  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is  neither 
male  nor  female ;  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus."  —  GAL.  iii.  28. 

1_3 EFORM,  as  a  verb,  expresses  noble  and  generous 
-Lw  action ;  as  a  noun,  a  mighty  and  glorious  work. 
The  word  has  been  as  a  bugle-call,  as  a  morning  re- 
veille. Wilberforce  and  Clarkson  and  Fowell  Buxton 
heard  it ;  and  the  emancipation  of  slavery  in  the  British 
dominions  was  the  response.  Garrison  and  Phillips 
and  Whittier,  Lovejoy  and  Tenney  and  Theodore 
Parker,  heard  it ;  and  with  mortal  or  immortal  eyes  they 


1532  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

now  see  the  triumph  of  freedom.  But,  as  the  British 
reformers  were  not  alone,  neither  were  the  American 
reformers  without  the  help  of  their  women  relatives 
and  friends  in  this  first  century  of  the  American  Re- 
public, which  witnessed  the  removal  of  slavery  from 
the  land.  And  to  the  latest  hour  of  this  nation's  being 
will  the  anti-slavery  reformers  be  venerated  for  their 
self-sacrifice  and  zeal  "when  days  were  dark,  and 
friends  were  few."  Elizabeth  Heyrick  was  the  first  in 
England  to  publish  a  protest  against  slavery.  The 
women  of  America  were  not  far  behind  the  men  in  pro- 
testing against  what  John  Wesley  termed  "  the  sum  of 
all  villanies."  Among  the  earliest  of  these  was  LYDIA 
MARIA  CHILD,  whose  pen  was  fervid  in  its  portrayal 
of  the  vice  and  crime  of  slavery.  Higginson's  interest- 
ing biographical  sketch 1  of  this  revered  woman,  whom 
Whittier  apostrophized  in  the  words,  "O  woman  greatly 
loved  !  "  is  sufficient  to  afford  all  needful  knowledge  at 
present  of  her  personally,  and  can  be  readily  found. 
It  shows  that  her  "  Appeal  for  that  Class  of  Americans 
called  Africans  "  was  at  once  the  cause  of  her  ostracism 
and  her  fame.  She  was  contemptuously  set  aside  as 
an  author  at  the  South :  she  became  honored  as  a  re- 
former at  the  North.  Among  the  early  abolitionists 
she  has  a  foremost  place  ;  and,  if  her  pen  would  but 
record  her  reminiscences  of  those  days,  it  would  com- 
mand an  army  of  readers.  Her  book  was  the  first  anti- 
slavery  volume  which  appeared  in  America ;  and  Mr. 
Higginson  says,  "  It  had  more  formative  influence  on 
my  mind,  in  that  direction,  than  any  other." 

"  Undaunted,  and  perhaps  stimulated  by  opposition, 
Mrs.  Child  followed  up  her  self-appointed  task.  During 
the  next  year  she  published  the  '  Oasis,'  a  sort  of  anti- 

i  "  Eminent  Women  of  the  Age,"  p.  38. 


WOMEN   REFORMERS.  333 

slavery  annual,  —  the  precursor  of  Mrs.  Chapman's 
'  Liberty  Bell '  of  later  years.  She  also  published,  about 
the  same  time,  an  '  Anti-Slavery  Catechism,'  and  a 
small  book  called  '  Authentic  Anecdotes  of  American 
Slavery.'  Mrs.  Child  also  edited  the  Anti-Slavery  Al- 
manac, and  in  various  ways  used  her  pen  vigorously  in 
this  reform.  She  is  acknowledged  as  one  of  the  inspir- 
ing workers.  Her  sympathy  with  John  Brown,  and 
her  letter  to  Gov.  Wise  in  his  behalf,  will  bear  witness 
to  her  spirit  as  a  reformer.  She  is  still  enlisted  in 
moral  reform,  and  believes  in  woman's  suffrage  with  all 
her  heart,  though  she  is  not  among  the  speakers  in  its 
behalf.  She  should  have  been  mentioned  in  the  chap- 
ter on  literary  women,  for  she  is  a  woman  worker  in 
the  paths  of  literature,  more  perhaps  than  anywhere 
else.  Her  "  Letters  from  New  York,"  her  "  Philo- 
thea,"  her  three  volumes  of  "  The  Progress  of  Reli- 
gious Ideas  through  Successive  Ages,"  her  "  Autumnal 
Leaves,"  and  the  juvenile  w.orks  which  she  wrote  or 
edited,  the  "  Girls'  Own  Book  "  among  them ;  and  her 
novels,  "  Hobomok  "  and  "  The  Rebels,"  her  "  Frugal 
Housewife," — all  these  books  prove  how  busy  have 
been  her  brain  and  pen,  and  that  she  deserves  a  place 
among  philanthropists,  literary  women,  and  reformers. 
The  writer  of  this  book  feels  deeply  indebted  to  her  for 
the  uplifting  influence  of  her  "  Letters  from  New  York," 
in  early  days  ;  and,  while  remembering  a  delightful 
though  brief  visit  to  her  in  Wayland,  Mass.,  adopts 
Col.  Higginson's  words :  "  No  rural  retirement  can  hide 
her  from  the  prayers  of  those  who  were  ready  to  perish 
when  they  first  knew  her ;  and  the  love  of  those  whose 
lives  she  has  enriched  from  childhood  will  follow  her 
fading  eyes  as  they  look  toward  sunset,  and,  after  her 
departing,  will  keep  her  memory  green." 


334  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

ABBY  KELLEY  FOSTER  is  one  of  the  noble  reform- 
ers of  our  first  century ;  and  her  name  will  live  ever- 
more as  a  lecturer  whose  pioneer  work  other  women 
love  to  acknowledge.  Mr.  May  says  she  "  performed 
for  years  an  incredible  amount  of  labor.  Her  manner 
of  speaking,  in  her  best  days,  was  singularly  effective. 
Her  knowledge  of  the  subject  was  complete,  her  facts 
were  pertinent,  her  arguments  forcible,  her  criticisms 
were  keen,  her  condemnation  was  terrible.  Few  of 
our  agents,  of  either  sex,  did  more  work  while  her 
strength  lasted,  or  did  it  better." J  Mrs.  Stanton 
speaks  of  her  thus :  "  Abby  Kelley,  a  young  Quakeress, 
made  her  first  appearance  on  the  anti-slavery  platform. 
She  was  a  tall,  fine-looking  girl,  with  a  large,  well- 
shaped  head,  regular  features,  dark  hair,  blue  eyes,  and 
a  sweet,  expressive  countenance.  She  was  a  person  of 
clear  moral  perceptions,  and  deep  feeling.  She  spoke 
extemporaneously,  always  well,  at  times  with  great 

eloquence  and  power For  a  period  of  thirty  years 

Abby  Kelley  has  spoken  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 
She  has  travelled  up  and  down  the  length  and  breadth 
of  this  land,  — alike  in  winter's  cold  and  summer's  heat, 
'mid  scorn,  ridicule,  violence,  and  mobs,  suffering  all 
kinds  of  persecution,  —  still  speaking,  whenever  and 
wherever  she  gained  audience,  in  the  open  air,  in 
schoolhouse,  barn,  depot,  church,  or  public  hall,  on 
week-day  or  Sunday,  as  she  found  opportunity.  1845 
she  married  Stephen  S.  Foster ;  and,  soon  after,  they 
purchased  a  farm  in  Worcester,  Mass.,  where,  with  an 
only  daughter,  she  has  lived  several  years  in  retirement. 
Having  lost  her  voice  by  constant  and  severe  use,  she 
gave  up  lecturing  while  still  in  her  prime."2  Since 

i  Recollections  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Conflict. 
4  Eminent  "Women  of  the  Aga 


WOMEN   REFORMERS.  335 

Mrs.  Stanton  wrote  thus,  the  daughter  has  been  gradu- 
ated from  Vassar  College,  and  the  parents  have  been 
persecuted  for  their  noble  adhesion  to  republican  ideas, 
and  their  refusal  to  submit  to  "  taxation  without  repre- 
sentation." Had  Mrs.  Foster  lived  in  the  days  of 
martyrdom,  she  would  dqubtless  have  been  burnt  at  the 
stake :  as  it  is,  the  martyr  spirit  she  has  exhibited 
will  crown  her  among  American  women  when  their 
right  to  the  ballot  is  conceded. 

SARAH  and  ANGELINA  GRIMKE  were  the  daughters 
of  a  slaveholder,  but  freed  the  slaves  when  they  be- 
came theirs,  in  1836,  and  came  North  to  lecture  on  the 
evils  of  slavery.  They  were  Quakers,  and  the  younger 
was  a  natural  orator.  In  1838  Angelina  married  Theo- 
dore D.  Weld ;  and  they  resided  in  New  Jersey,  and 
afterwards  in  Hyde  Park,  Mass.,  for  many  years.  Both 
were  ready  writers,  and  wrote  for  the  press  on  woman's 
rights  and  slavery.  Angelina  became  the  mother  of 
one  daughter  and  two  sons.  The  daughter  married  a 
clergyman,  after  having  been  an  efficient  aid  in  the 
"  Woman's  Journal  "  office. 

ABIGAIL  HOPPER  GIBBONS,  the  daughter  of  the 
benevolent  Isaac  T.  Hopper  (whose  memoir  was  writ- 
ten by  Mrs.  L.  M.  Child),  was  one  of  the  early  reform- 
ers. Mrs.  Stanton  says  of  her,  "  Though  early  married, 
and  the  mother  of  several  children,  her  life  has  been 
one  of  constant  activity  and  self-denial  for  the  public 
good.  Those  who  know  her  best  can  testify  to  her 
many  acts  of  benevolence  and  mercy,  working  alike  for 
the  unhappy  slave,  the  unfortunate  of  her  own  sex,  the 
children  on  Randall's  Island,  and  the  suffering  soldiers 
in  our  late  war." 

MARY  GREW  of  Philadelphia,  was  "  for  thirty  years 
one  of  the  ablest  and  most  faithful  workers  both  in 


336  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

the  anti-slavery  and  woman's-riglits  cause.  .  .  .  The 
•women  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  anti-slavery 
cause  in  the  early  days  endured  the  double  odium  of 
being  abolitionists,  and  *  women  out  of  their  sphere.' 
...  A  clerical  appeal  was  issued,  and  sent  to  all  the 
clergymen  in  New  England,  calling  on  them  to  de- 
nounce in  their  pulpits  this  unwomanly  and  unchris- 
tian proceeding.  Sermons  were  preached  portraying 
in  the  darkest  colors  the  fearful  results  to  the  Church, 
the  State,  and  the  home,  in  thus  encouraging  women 
to  enter  public  life.  It  was  the  opposition  of  the 
clergy  to  woman's  speaking  and  voting  in  their  meet- 
ings, that  occasioned  the  first  division  in  '  The  Ameri- 
can Anti-Slavery  Societ}7".'  "  When  the  abolitionists 
met  in  the  World's  Convention  in  London,  in  1840,  the 
women  delegates  from  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania 
were  denied  a  place.  The  delegation  consisted  of 

LUCRETIA  MOTT,  MABY  GREW,  ABBY  KlMBER,  ELIZ- 
ABETH NEALE,  SARAH  PUGH,  from  Pennsylvania ;  EM- 
ILY WINSLOW,  ABBY  SOTJTHWICK,  and  ANNE  GREEXE 
PHILLIPS,  of  Massachusetts,  —  all  worthy  women  of  the 
first  century,  ostracized  on  that  occasion  for  no  fault  of 
theirs,  but  because  the  Almighty  chose  that  they  should 
be  his  daughters  rather  than  his  sons. 

Mrs.  Stanton  says  of  Mrs.  Phillips,  "  She  had  just 
returned  from  her  bridal  tour  on  the  Continent,  and 
was  in  the  zenith  of  her  beauty.  She  had  a  profu- 
sion of  dark-brown  hair,  large,  loving  blue  eyes,  and 
regular  features.  She  was  tall,  graceful,  and  talked 
with  great  fluency  and  force.  Her  whole  soul  seemed 
to  be  in  the  pending  issue.  As  we  were  about  to  enter 
the  Convention,  she  laid  her  hand  most  emphatically 
on  her  husband's  shoulder,  and  said,  '  Now,  Wendell, 
don't  be  simmy-sammy  to-day,  but  brave  as  a  lion ; ' 


WOMEN    REFORMERS.  337 

and  he  obeyed  the  injunction."  LUCRETIA  MOTT  is 
pictured  by  Mrs.  Stanton  in  graceful  manner  among 
the  "  Eminent  "Women ; "  and  the  readers  of  this  vol- 
ume are  urged  to  read  her  sketch,  and  the  autobiograph- 
ical statements  of  Mrs.  Mott  herself.  The  two  pioneer 
women  met  in  London,  and  at  once  became  friends  for  a 
lifetime,  as  well  as  co-workers  in  every  reform.  Though 
almost  eighty-four,  the  voice  of  the  saintly  Lucretia 
Mott  was  gladly  heard  at  the  Woman's  Congress  held 
in  St.  George's  Hall  in  October,  1876.  Place  must  be 
found  here  for  her  own  "testimony"  in  regard  to  the 
work  to  which  she  has  nobly  devoted  her  life.  "  The 
unequal  condition  of  women  in  society  early  impressed 
my  mind.  Learning,  while  at  school,  that  the  charge 
for  the  education  of  girls  was  the  same  as  that  for  boys, 
and  that,  when  they  became  teachers,  women  received 
but  half  as  much  as  men  for  their  services,  —  the  injus- 
tice of  this  was  so  apparent,  that  I  early  resolved  to 
claim  for  myself  all  that  an  impartial  Creator  had 
bestowed.  At  twenty-five  years  of  age,  surrounded 
with  a  little  family  and  many  cares,  I  felt  called  to  a 
more  public  life  of  devotion  to  duty,  and  engaged  in 
the  ministry  in  our  society,  receiving  every  encourage- 
ment from  those  in  authority.  .  .  .  The  temperance 
reform  early  engaged  my  attention ;  and  for  more  than 
twenty  years  I  have  practised  total  abstinence  from  all 
intoxicating  drinks.  The  cause  of  peace  has  had  a 
share  of  my  efforts,  leading  to  the  ultra  non-resistance 
ground,  —  that  no  Christian  can  consistently  uphold 
and  actively  engage  in  and  support  a  government  based 
in  tire  sword,  or  relying  on  that  as  an  ultimate  resort. 
The  oppression  of  the  working  classes  by  existing 
monopolies,  and  the  lowness  of  wages,  often  engaged 
my  attention;  and  I  have  held  many  meetings  with 


338  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

them,  and  heard  their  appeals  with  compassion,  and  a 
great  desire  for  a  radical  change  in  the  system  which 
makes  the  rich  richer  and  the  poor  poorer.  The  vari- 
ous associations  and  communities  tending  to  a  greater 
equality  of  condition  have  had  from  me  a  hearty  God- 
speed. But  the  millions  of  down-trodden  slaves  in  our 
land  being  the  greatest  sufferers,  the  most  oppressed 
class,  I  have  felt  bound  to  plead  their  cause,  in  season 
and  out  of  season,  to  endeavor  to  put  my  soul  in  their 
souls'  stead,  and  to  aid,  all  in  my  power,  in  every  right 
effort  for  their  immediate  emancipation.  This  duty 
was  impressed  upon  me  at  the  time  I  consecrated  my- 
self to  that  gospel  which  anoints  '  to  preach  deliverance 
to  the  captives,'  to  '  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised.' 
...  I  have  travelled  thousands  of  miles  in  this  coun- 
try, holding  meetings  in  some  of  the  slave  States,  have 
been  in  the  midst  of  mobs  and  violence,  and  have 
shared  abundantly  in  the  odium  attached  to  the  name 
of  an  uncompromising  abolitionist,  as  well  as  partaken 
richly  of  the  sweet  return  of  peace  attendant  on  those 
who  would  undo  the  heavy  burdens,  and  let  the  op- 
pressed go  free,  and  break  every  yoke.  In  1840  a 
World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention  was  called  in  Lon- 
don. Women  from  Boston,  New  York,  and  Philadel- 
phia were  delegates  to  that  convention.  I  was  one  of 
the  number ;  but,  on  our  arrival  in  England,  our  cre- 
dentials were  not  accepted  because  we  were  women. 
We  were,  however,  treated  with  great  courtesy  and 
attention  as  strangers;  and,  as  women,  were  admitted 
to  chosen  seats  as  spectators  and  listeners,  while  our 
right  of  membership  was  denied  :  we  were  voted  out. 
This  brought  the  woman  question  more  into  view ; 
and  an  increase  of  interest  in  the  subject  has  been  the 
result.  In  this  work,  too,  I  have  engaged  heart  and 


WOMEN   EEEOEMEES.  oo'J 

uund,  as  my  labors,  travels,  and  public  discourses 
evince.  The  misrepresentation,  ridicule,  and  abuse 
heaped  upon  this  as  well  as  other  reforms,  do  not  in 
the  least  deter  me  from  my  duty.  To  those  whose 
name  is  cast  out  as  evil  for  the  truth's  sake,  it  is  a 
small  thing  to  be  judged  of  man's  judgment."  The 
lapse  of  years  will  remove  the  stigma,  but  increase  the 
pure  renown,  of  those  earnest  abolitionists  ;  and  dear  to 
all  women  shall  become  the  name  of  the  lovely,  fear- 
less, Quaker  preacher  and  reformer,  Lucretia  Mott. 

CAEOLIXE  M.  SEVEEANCE  was  early  enlisted  in  the 
ranks  of  the  reformers.  She  was  born  in  Canandaigua, 
N.Y.,  in  January,  1820.  Her  father  was  a  banker, 
Orson  Seymour.  Her  mother  was  Caroline  M.  Clark. 
In  1840  she  married  F.  C.  Severance,  a  banker  of  Cleve- 
land, O.  When  she  was  the  mother  of  five  children, 
in  1853,  she  was  chosen  to  read  before  the  Mercantile 
Library  Association,  in  Cleveland,  the  first  lecture  ever 
delivered  by  a  woman  in  that  city.  Under  a  sense  of 
duty  she  wrote  that  lecture.  She  had  already  become 
identified  with  the  woman's  rights  movement ;  hence 
her  invitation  to  speak.  An  immense  audience  listened 
respectfully  for  an  hour  and  three-quarters ;  and  that 
lecture  was  repeated  in  different  parts  of  Ohio.  After 
that,  she  prepared  a  tract  for  the  Woman's  Rights 
Association,  and  later  presented  a  memorial  to  the 
Legislature,  asking  suffrage,  and  amendments  to  State 
laws.  In  1855  she  removed  to  Massachusetts,  and 
there  delivered  the  first  lecture  ever  delivered  in 
Boston  before  a  lyceum  association  by  a  woman.  She 
did  not  continue  laboring  as  a  lecturer,  from  failure  in 
health  and  voice,  but  gave  good  service  in  various  other 
*vays  as  a  reformer  and  philanthropist,  and  read  also  a 
sourse  of  private  lectures  on  practical  ethics,  before 


340  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUttY. 

Dio  Lewis's  school  of  girls  iu  Lexington,  Mass.  She 
resided  for  several  years  in  a  beautiful  home  in  West 
Newton,  Mass.,  but  is  now  in  California,  from  whence 
she  writes  occasionally  for  the  "  Woman's  Journal," 
and  where  she  is  still  ready  for  the  grand  work  of 
reforming  the  world. 

FRANCES  DANA  GAGE  deserved  to  be  mentioned 
among  literary  women  .and  in  the  chapter  also  on 
women  poets ;  but  her  noblest  efforts  have  been  in  the 
ranks  of  the  reformers,  and  here  the  meed  of  praise  so 
richly  due  shall  be  accorded.  She  was  born  Oct.  12, 
1808,  in  Marietta,  O.  Her  father,  Joseph  Barker,  was 
from  New  Hampshire,  —  a  Western  pioneer.  Through 
her  mother,  Elizabeth  Dana,  she  was  allied  to  the  dis- 
tinguished Massachusetts  families  of  Dana  and  Bancroft. 
"Her  father  was  a  farmer  and  cooper;  and  the  duties  of 
a  farmer's  daughter  in  a  new  country  were  all  cheerfully 
and  easily  disposed  of  by  her.  She  assisted  her  father  in 
making  barrels  ;  and  I  have  heard  her  often  tell,  that,  as 
she  would  roll  out  a  well-made  barrel,  her  father  would 
pat  her  on  the  head,  and  say,  *  Ah,  Fanny,  you  should 
have  been  a  boy ! '  .  .  .  At  the  age  of  twenty-one 
she  married  James  L.  Gage,  a  lawyer  of  McConnells- 
ville,  O." 

She  became  the  mother  of  eight  children  ;  and  yet, 
with  all  her  domestic  labors,  she  found  time  to  read, 
write  for  leading  journals,  and  often  to  speak  also,  on 
temperance,  slavery,  and  woman's  rights.  She  shared 
the  persecutions  which  reformers  know.  "  In  1853  she 
remove^  to  St.  Louis.  Those  who  fought  the  anti- 
slavery  battle  in  Massachusetts  cannot  realize  the 
danger  of  such  a  warfare  in  a  slave-holding  State. 
With  her  usual  frank  utterances  of  opinions,  she  was 
soon  branded  as  an  abolitionist,  her  articles  excluded 


WOMEN  REFORMERS.  341 

from  the  journals,  and  she  from  '  good  society,'  with 
daily  threats  of  violence  to  her  person,  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  her  property.  Owing  to  her  husband's  ill 
health  and  failure  in  business,  she  took  the  part  of 
assistant  editor  of  an  agricultural  paper  in  Columbus, 
O. ;  but  as  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  soon  destroyed 
the  circulation  of  the  paper,  and  four  of  her  sons  had 
gone  into  the  army,  her  thoughts  turned  to  the  scenes 
of  conflict  in  the  Southern  States.  The  '  suffering 
freedmen  '  and  the  '  boys  in  blue  '  appealed  alike  to  her 
loving  heart  for  kindness  and  help ;  and,  without 
appointment  or  salary,  she  went  to  Port  Royal  in  1862. 
She  remained  in  Beaufort,  Paris,  and  Fernandina, 
thirteen  months,  ministering  alike  to  the  soldiers  and 
freedmen,  as  opportunity  offered.  Pages  might  be 
written  on  the  heroism  of  Mrs.  Gage  and  her  daughter 
Mary  during  this  period.  Oppressed  with  the  magni- 
tude of  the  work  to  be  accomplished  there,  she  re- 
turned North  to  give  her  experiences  acquired  among 
the  freedmen,  hoping  to  rouse  others,  younger  and 
stronger  than  herself,  to  go  down  and  teach  those 
neglected  people  the  A  B  C  of  learning  and  social  life. 
During  this  year  she  travelled  through  many  of  the 
Northern  States,  speaking  nearly  every  evening  to 
soldiers'  aid  societies.  She  worked  without  pay,  only 
asking  enough  to  defray  her  expenses.  When  the 
summer  days  made  lecturing  impossible,  she  went  as  an 
unsalaried  agent  of  the  Sanitary  Commission  down  the 
Mississippi  to  Memphis,  Vicksburg,  and  Natchez.  In 
the  month  of  September  she  was  overturned  in  a 
carriage  at  Galesburg,  111.,  which  crippled  her  for  that 
year.  As  soon  as  she  recovered  she  was  employed  and 
well  paid  by  various  temperance  organizations  to  lec- 
ture for  that  cause ;  and  she  was  thus  occupied,  when 


342  WOMEN   OF   THE   CENTURY. 

her  plans  for  future  activity  and  usefulness  were  sud- 
denly terminated  by  a  stroke  of  paralysis,  in  August, 
1867."  From  this  illness  she  has  largely  recovered, 
but  will  probably  enter  no  more  into  public  life  as  a 
speaker. 

"Under  the  nom  de  plume  of  'Aunt  Fanny,'  Mrs. 
Gage  has  written  many  beautiful  stories  for  children, 
stanzas,  and  sketches  of  social  life.  She  was  an  early 
contributor  to  the  '  Saturday  Visitor,'  edited  by  Jane  G. 
Swisshelm,  and  has  lately  written  for  '  The  New  York 
Independent.'  A  volume  of  poems  and  a  temperance 
tale,  '  Elsie  Magoon,'  are  the  last  of  her  published 
works.  By  her  own  efforts,  Mrs.  Gage  has  accumu- 
lated enough  to  secure  to  herself  and  her  children  a 
pleasant  home  for  her  old  age."  l 

ABBY  HUTCHINSON  PATTON.  —  "  Among  the  repre- 
sentative women  of  the  nineteenth  century,"  says  Mrs. 
Stanton,  "  Abby  Hutchinson  deserves  a  passing  notice. 
She  was  born  in  Milford,  N.H.,  one  of  a  large  family 
of  children.  Early  in  the  anti-slavery  cause,  she  with 
four  brothers  began  to  sing  in  the  conventions.  In 
..all  those  stormy  days  of  mob  violence,  the  Hutchinson 
family  \A^as  the  one  harmonizing  element.  Like  oil  on 
the  troubled  waters,  their  sweet  songs  would  soothe  to 
silence  those  savages  whom  neither  appeal  nor  defiance 
could  awe.  Abby  made  her  first  appearance  in  public 
at  an  early  age.  Anti-slavery,  woman's  rights,  temper- 
ance, peace,  and  democracy  have  been  her  themes  ; 
singing  alike  in  the  Old  World  and  the  New.  To 
farmers  on  New  England's  granite  hills,  to  pioneers  on 
the  far-off  prairies,  to  merchant  princes  in  crowded 
cities,  and  to  kings,  queens,  and  nobles  in  palaces  and 
courts,  have  those  girlish  lips  sung  the  republican 
i  Eminent  Women  of  the  Age,  p.  385. 


WOMEN   REFORMERS.  348 

anthem,  '  All  men  are  created  equal.'  She  was  a  girl 
of  strong  character,  and  nice  sense  of  propriety  in 
all  things.  Although  until  her  marriage  her  life  was 
wholly  a  public  one,  yet  she  never  lost  the  modesty, 
delicacy,  and  refinement  so  peculiarly  her  own.  .  .  . 
All  admit  that  '  the  Hutchinson  family '  have  acted 
well  their  part  in  the  cause  of  reform ;  and  a  second 
generation  is  singing  still." 

ELIZABETH  CHASE  HUTCHINSON,  the  wife  of  Asa  B. 
Hutchinson,  ought  not  to  be  unmentioned  in  this 
volume,  by  the  friend  of  her  school-days.  She  was 
born  on  Nantucket,  was  a  fine  singer,  and  sang  the 
songs  of  reform  for  many  years  in  public.  Of  lovely 
spirit  and  person,  she  attracted  many  hearts.  Later  in 
life  she  removed  with  her  family  to  the  West,  where 
she  died  suddenly,  while  laboring  earnestly  in  the 
Sunday-school  work  and  the  great  temperance  reform. 
She  was  about  forty-six  years  of  age,  and  left  a  son 
and  daughter ;  her  oldest  son,  who  used  to  sing  with 
her,  having  gone  before  her  to  the  better  land.  The 
memory  of  such  a  woman  is  blessed. 

ANTOINETTE  BROWN  and  LTJCY  STONE  were  reform- 
ers from  their  early  days.  They  were  students  in 
Oberlin,  and  there  became  fast  friends :  they  have  since 
become  sisters  by  marrying  Samuel  and  Henry  B. 
Blackwell.  Antoinette  is  elsewhere  honorably  men- 
tioned. Of  Lucy  Stone  Mrs.  Stanton  says,  "  She  was 
the  first  speaker  who  really  stirred  the  nation's  heart 
on  the  subject  of  woman's  wrongs.  Young,  magnetic, 
eloquent,  her  soul  filled  with  the  new  idea,  she  drew 
immence  audiences,  and  was  eulogized  everywhere  by 
the  press.  She  spoke  extemporaneously."  Her  birth- 
place was  West  Brookfield,  Mass.  Having  obtained  a 
liberal  education  at  Oberlin  College,  and  discovered 


344  WOMEN   OF   THE  CENTURY. 

her  ability  as  a  speaker,  she  returned  to  New  England, 
and  became  an  agent  for  the  Anti-slavery  Society,  and 
went  forth  to  speak  alternately  for  woman  and  the 
slave.  She  spoke  in  all  the  large  cities  of  the  West, 
and  in  some  of  the  Southern  cities.  In  1855  she  was 
married  to  Henry  B.  Blackwell ;  T.  W.  Higginson,  then 
a  Unitarian  pastor,  performing  the  ceremony.  "  She 
accepted  the  usual  marriage  under  protest ;  her  hus- 
band renouncing  all  those  rights  of  authority  and 
ownership  which  were  his  in  law,  and  she  retaining 
her  own  name.  Although  this  has  been  to  her  a 
source  of  great  annoyance  and  persecution,  from  friends 
as  well  as  enemies ;  yet,  feeling  that  the  principle  of 
woman's  individualism  was  involved  in  a  lifelong 
name,  she  has  steadily  adhered  to  her  decision.  .  .  . 
She  has  one  daughter;  and  since  her  marriage  her 
life  has  been  spent  in  retirement,  until  the  news  that 
Kansas  was  to  submit  the  proposition  to  strike  the 
words  '  white  male  '  from  her  constitution,  to  a  vote  of 
the  people,  roused  her  again  to  public  duty.  She  spent 
two  months  in  the  spring  of  1867,  travelling  through 
that  State,  speaking  to  large  audiences."  Since  then 
she  has  labored  untiringly  for  woman -suffrage;  and  is 
one  of  the  able  and  active  editors  of  "  The  Woman's 
Journal."  Grateful  generations  of  women  will  yet 
speak  with  loving  reverence  the  spotless  name  of  the 
brave  reformer  and  consistent  woman-suffragist,  Lucy 
Stone.  The  following  is  an  eloquent  appeal  from  her 
faithful,  fearless  pen,  in  "  The  Woman's  Journal," 
during  the  presidential  canvass  of  centennial  year :  — 

"  Women  of  the  United  States,  never  forget  that  you 
are  excluded  by  law  from  participation  in  the  great 
question  which  at  this  moment  agitates  the  whole 


WOMEN  REFORMERS.  345 

country,  —  a  question  which  is  not  only  who  the  next 
candidate  for  president  shall  be,  but  what  shall  be  the 
policy  of  the  government  for  the  next  four  years. 

"  So  great  is  the  interest  felt  in  it,  that  men  of  all 
grades,  from  all  parts  of  the  Union,  have  left,  the 
scholar  his  books,  the  clergyman  his  pulpit,  the  mer- 
chant his  counter,  the  lawyer  his  office,  and  the  busiest 
man  his  business,  to  cast  his  vote,  or  to  be  heard  and 
felt  at  Cincinnati. 

"The  interest  transcends  every  merely  personal  thing. 
When  the  selection  is  made,  and  the  kind  of  govern- 
ment we  are  to  have  during  the  next  four  years  is 
indicated,  every  man  holds  his  vote  ready  to  help  settle 
the  question.  He  may  be  learned  or  ignorant,  wise  or 
foolish,  drunken  or  sober :  the  beggar  at  the  gate,  and 
the  thief  out  of  jail,  every  man  of  them  has  his  vote. 
But  for  you,  every  woman  of  you,  the  dog  on  your  rug, 
or  the  cat  in  your  corner,  has  as  much  political  power 
as  you  have.  Never  forget  it.  And  when  the  country 
is  shaken,  as  it  will  be  for  months  to  come,  over  the 
issue,  never  forget  that  this  law-making  power  settles 
every  interest  of  yours.  It  settles,  from  the  crown  of 
your  head  to  the  sole  of  your  feet,  every  personal  right. 
It  settles  your  relation  to  and  right  in  your  child. 
You  earn  or  inherit  a  dollar;  and  this  same  power 
decides  how  much  of  it  shall  be  yours,  and  how  much 
it  will  itself  take  or  dispose  of  for  its  own  use.  Oh, 
women,  the  one  subjugated  class  in  this  great  country, 
the  only  adult  people  who  are  ruled  over !  pray  for  a 
baptism  of  fire  to  reveal  to  you  the  depth  of  the  humil- 
iation, the  degradation,  and  the  unspeakable  loss  which 
comes  of  your  unequal  position." 

CAROLINE  H.  DALL  of  Boston  has  done  brave  service 


346  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

as  a  reformer,  by  her  voice  and  pen.  She  is  a  Boston 
woman,  highly  educated,  and  an  able  writer.  Mrs. 
Stanton  calls  her  "  a  close  student,"  and  "  an  encyclo- 
paedia of  historical  facts  and  statistics." 

She  has  published  several  books  on  woman  in  various 
relations ;  and  her  book  "  The  College,  the  Market,  and 
the  Court,"  dedicated  to  Lucretia  Mott,  is  a  most 
valuable  work  for  reference,  and  was  called  by  a  New 
York  reviewer  "  the  most  eloquent  and  forcible  state- 
ment of  the  woman's  question  which  has  been  made." 
She  may  be  mentioned  again,  as  a  good  worker  in  other 
directions. 

C.  I.  H.  NICHOLS,  a  native  of  Vermont,  resided  "in 
Kansas  though  all  the  troubles  in  that  State;  and  to 
her  influence,  in  a  measure,  is  due  its  liberal  laws  for 
woman.  She  was  in  the  first  constitutional  convention, 
and  pressed  woman's  claims  on  its  consideration.  Mrs. 
Nichols  is  an  able  writer  and  speaker,  and  is  as  thor- 
oughly conversant  with  the  laws  of  her  State  as  any 
judge  or  lawyer  in  it ;  and  she  has  taken  a  prominent 
part  in  all  reforms  for  the  last  twenty  years."  1 

SUSAN  B.  ANTHONY,  according  to  Mrs.  Stanton, 
4{  was  born  at  the  foot  of  the  Green  Mountains,  South 
Adams,  Mass.,  Feb.  15,  1820.  Her  father,  Daniel 
Anthony,  was  a  stern  Quaker;  her  mother,  Lucy  Read, 
a  Baptist ;  but,  being  liberal  and  progressive  in  their 
tendencies,  they  were  soon  one  in  their  religion.  Her 
father  was  a  cotton-manufacturer,  and  the  first  dollar 
she  ever  earned  was  in  his  factory.  Though  a  man  of 
wealth,  the  idea  of  self-support  was  early  impressed  on 
all  the  daughters  of  the  family.  In  1826  the}'  moved 
into  Washington  County,  N.Y.,  and  in  1846  to  Roches- 
ter. She  was  educated  in  a  small  select  school  in  her 

i  Eminent  Women  of  the  Age. 


WOMEN  REFORMERS.  «47 

father's  house,  until  the  age  of  seventeen,  when  she 
went  to  a  boarding-school  in  Philadelphia.  Fifteen 
years  of  her  life  were  passed  in  teaching  school  in 
different  parts  of  the  State  of  New  York.  Although 
superintendents  gave  her  credit  for  the  best-disciplined 
school,  and  the  most  thoroughly  taught  scholars,  in  the 
county,  yet  they  paid  her  but  eight  dollars  a  month, 
while  men  received  from  twenty-four  to  thirty  dollars. 
After  fifteen  years  of  faithful  labor,  and  the  closest 
economy,  she  had  saved  but  three  hundred  dollars. 
This*  experience  taught  her  the  lesson  of  woman's 
rights  ;  and,  when  she  read  the  reports  of  the  first  con- 
ventions, her  whole  soul  responded  to  the  new  demand. 
Her  earliest  public  work  was  in  the  temperance  move- 
ment. .  .  .  Prom  1852  she  has  been  one  of  the  leading 
spirits  in  every  woman's  right's  convention,  and  has 
been  the  acting  secretary  and  general  agent  through  all 
these  years  ;  and  when  in  1866  we  re-organized  under 
the  name  of  the  '  American  Equal  Rights  Association,' 
she  was  re-appointed  to  both  these  offices.  From  1857 
to  1866,  Miss  Anthony  was  also  an  agent  and  faithful 
worker  in  the  anti-slavery  cause  until  the  emancipation 
edict  proclaimed  freedom  throughout  the  land.  She 
has  been  untiring  in  her  labors  in  securing  the  liberal 
legislation  we  now  have  for  women  in  the  State  of  New 
York."  1  Miss  Anthony  deserves  the  fame  she  has  won 
as  a  reformer ;  and  her  pure  life  and  earnest  words  for 
temperance  and  human  rights  will  command  the  respect 
of  future  generations,  when  all  strife  and  controversy 
concerning  woman's  rights  shall  have  passed  away. 

OLYMPIA  BROWN  deserves  mention  among  earnest 
reformers,  but  will  be  mentioned  more  fully  elsewhere. 
She  deserves  all  the  commendation  that  is  given  by 

1  Eminent  Women  of  the  Age. 


348  WOMEN  OF   THE  CENTURY. 

Mrs.  Stanton,  to  the  workers  in  the  reform  known  as 
that  of  woman  suffrage.  She  says,  "  It  is  no  exaggera- 
tion to  state,  that  the  women  identified  with  this  ques- 
tion are  distinguished  for  intellectual  power,  moral 
probity,  and  religious  earnestness.  Most  of  them  are 
able  speakers  and  writers,  as  their  published  speeches, 
letters,  novels,  and  poems  fully  show.  Those  who  have 
seen  them  in  social  life  can  testify  that  they  are  good 
housekeepers,  true  mothers,  and  faithful  wives.  I  have 
known  women  in  many  countries  and  classes  of  socjety ; 
and  I  know  none  more  noble,  delicate,  and  refined,  in 
word  and  action,  than  those  I  have  met  on  the  woman's 
rights  platform.  True,  they  do  not  possess  the  volup- 
tuous grace  and  soft  manners  of  the  petted  children  of 
luxury ;  they  are  not  clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen, 
faring  sumptuously  every  day ;  for  most  of  them  are 
self-made  women,  who  through  hardships  and  sacrifice 
have  smoothed  the  rugged  paths  for  multitudes  about 
them,  and  earned  a  virtuous  independence  for  them- 
selves. All  praise  to  those  who,  through  ridicule  and 
scorn,  have  changed  the  barbarous  laws  for  woman  in 
many  of  the  States,  and  brought  them  into  harmony 
with  the  higher  civilization  in  which  we  live  !  " 

The  lady  whose  vigorous  pen  has  helped  to  the  men- 
tion of  others  in  this  chapter  must  not  be  overlooked 
herself;  for  few  women  have  done  more  to  open,paths 
of  usefulness  ajid  success  to  other  women  lecturers  and 
reformers. 

ELIZABETH  CADY  STANTON  was  the  daughter  of 
Judge  Daniel  Cady  and  Margaret  Livingston,  and  was 
born  Nov.  12,  1816,  in  Johnstown,  N.Y.,  not  far  from 
Albany.  "  A  Yankee  said  that  his  chief  ambition  was 
to  become  more  noted  than  his  native  town.  Mrs. 
Stanton  has  lived  to  see  her  historic  birthplace  shrink 


WOMEN  REFORMERS.  340 

into  a  mere  local  repute,  while  she  herself  has  been 
quoted,  ridiculed,  and  abused  into  a  national  fame." 
In  the  office  of  her  father,  the  judge,  Mrs.  Stanton 
became  first  acquainted  with  the  legal  disabilities  of 
women  under  the  old  common  law.  The  graphic  and 
interesting  sketch  of  Mrs.  Stanton,  in  the  "  Eminent 
Women  of  the  Age,"  is  commended  to  the  reader  of 
this  volume,  for  incidents  concerning  her,  for  which 
space  cannot  be  found  here,  and  which  prove  her  to 
have  been  early  an  advocate  of  human  rights.  "In 
1837,  in  her  twenty-fourth  year,  while  on  a  visit  to 
her  distinguished  cousin  Gerrit  Smith,  at  Peterboro', 
in  the  central  part  of  New  York  State,  she  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Mr.  Henry  B.  Stanton,  then  a  young 
and  fervid  orator,  who  had  won  distinction  in  the  anti- 
slavery  movement.  The  acquaintances  speedily  became 
friends ;  the  friends  grew  into  lovers ;  and  the  lovers, 
after  a  short  courtship,  married,  and  immediately  set 
sail  for  Europe.  This  voyage  was  undertaken  not 
merely  for  pleasure  and  sight-seeing,  but  that  Mr.  Stan- 
ton  might  fulfil  the  mission  of  a  delegate  to  the 
World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention,  to  be  held  in  Lon- 
don, in  1840.  "  There  Mrs.  Stanton  met  Lucretia  Mott, 
and  learned  that  there  were  others  who  felt  the  yoke 
women  were  bearing  as  well  as  herself.  She  was  once 
asked,  "  What  most  impressed  you  in  Europe  ?  "  and 
replied,  "  Lucretia  Mott."  Their  friendship  has  never 
waned  ;  and  they  have  worked  together  for  reforms,  all 
the  long  years  since  that  meeting. 

"  The  practice  of  going  before  a  legislature,  to  pre- 
sent the  claims  of  an  unpopular  cause,  has  been  more 
common  in  many  other  States  than  in  New  York ; 
most  common,  perhaps,  in  Massachusetts.  With  the 
single  exception  of  Mrs.  Lucy  Stone,  —  a  noble  and 


350  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

gifted  woman,  to  whom  her  sisterhood  owe  an  affec- 
tionate gratitude  not  merely  for  an  eloquence  that  has 
charmed  thousands  of  ears,  but  for  practical  efforts  in 
abolishing  laws  oppressive  to  their  sex,  —  I  believe  that 
Mrs.  Stanton  has  appeared  oftener  before  a  State  legis- 
lature than  can  be  said  of  any  of  her  co-laborers.  She 
has  repeatedly  addressed  the  Legislature  of  New  York, 
at  Albany,  and,  on  these  occasions,  has  always  been 
honored  by  the  presence  of  a  brilliant  audience,  and 
has  always  spoken  with  dignity  and  ability.  Her  chief 
topics  have  been  the  needful  changes  in  the  laws  relat- 
ing to  intemperance,  education,  divorce,  slavery,  and 
suffrage.  '  Yes,  gentlemen,'  said  she,  in  her  address  of 
1854,  '  we,  the  daughters  of  the  revolutionary  heroes 
of  '76,  demand  at  your  hands  the  redress  of  our 
grievances,  a  revision  of  your  State  constitution,  a 
new  code  of  laws.'  At  the  close  of  that  grand  and 
glowing  argument,  a  lawyer  who  had  listened  to  it, 
and  who  knew  and  revered  Mrs.  Stanton's  father, 
shook  hands  with  the  orator,  and  said,  'Madam,  it 
was  as  fine  a  production  as  if  it  had  been  made  and 
pronounced  by  Judge  Cady  himself.'  This,  to  the 
daughter's  ears,  was  sufficiently  high  praise." 

Mrs.  Stanton  has  lectured  extensively,  and  written 
much  on  reformatory  themes.  "The  sacred  lore  of 
motherhood  is  to  her  a  familiar  study.  Five  sons  and 
two  daughters  sit  around  her  table,  all  as  proud  of 
their  mother  as  if  she  were  a  queen  of  fairy-land,  and 
they  her  pages  in  waiting.  Drinking  not  seldom  at  the 
fountain  of  sorrow,  she  has  found,  in  its  bitter  waters, 
strength  for  her  soul.  Religious  and  worshipful  by 
constitution,  she  has  cast  off,  in  her  later  life,  the  super- 
stitions of  her  earlier,  but  has  never  lost  her  child- 
hood's faith  in  God.  Society  being  (as  she  looks  at  it) 


WOMEN  REFORMERS.  35  1 

full  of  hollowness  and  falsity,  she  sometimes  yearns 
for  its  reformation  as  if  her  heart  would  break, — 
the  cause  of  woman's  elevation  being  with  her  not 
merely  a  passion,  but  a  religion.  She  would  willingly 
give  her  body  to  be  burned,  for  the  sake  of  seeing  her 
sex  enfranchised."  When  the  desire  of  her  heart  is 
gratified,  her  name  will  be  gratefully  remembered. 

CHARLOTTE  B.  WILBOTJR  has  also  a  claim  to  a  high 
place  among  reformers,  and  could  also  have  been  men- 
tioned among  lecturers,  as  she  has  spoken  widely  and 
acceptably  on  various  themes  ;  and  also  among  "liter- 
ary women,"  as  her  charming  volume  "  Soul  to  Soul  " 
would  bear  witness.  As  a  reformer,  she  has  spoken 
before  legislatures  and  in  conventions.  She  was  the 
efficient  and  beloved  president  of  the  New  York 
woman's  club,  called  Sorosis,  for  five  years  (though  for 
eleven  months  of  the  last  year  she  was  in  Europe,  and 
Rev.  Phebe  A.  Hanaford  was  acting  president  of 
Sorosis  in  her  stead)  ;  and  she  was  among  the  first  to 
issue  a  call  for  the  Woman's  Congress.  Her  maiden 
name  was  Beebe  ;  and  she  is  the  daughter  of  a  clergy- 
man, and  was  finely  educated.  She  is  now  in  Europe 
superintending  the  education  of  her  children,  and  add- 
ing to  the  culture  of  her  superior  mind.  Connecticut 
is  believed  to  be  her  native  State ;  but  she  has  been 
long  a  resident  of  New  York  City,  and,  as  a  woman 
suffragist,  has  several  times  appeared  before  the  legisla- 
ture of  New  York,  in  behalf  of  measures  calculated  to 
benefit  women.  She  has  also  engaged  in  the  peace 
movement,  and  has  not  been  unsympathetic  in  other 
reforms. 

CHARLOTTE  AUSTIN  JOY,  of  Nantucket  Island, 
should  be  mentioned  amid  reformers  ;  for  she  was  one 
of  the  early  anti-slavery,  temperance,  and  dress-reform 


352  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

advocates,  and  her  zeal  has  never  abated.  For  rnany 
years  she  wore  the  reform  costume,  and  was  numbered 
among  the  vegetarians  and  hydropathists.  Several  late 
years  have  been  spent  on  the  Isle  of  Wight  (minister- 
ing to  an  invalid  husband,  Hon.  David  Joy  of  Nan- 
tucket,  who  was  in  sympathy  with  all  reforms),  where 
she  presided  over  temperance  gatherings,  and  with  her 
pen  and  in  other  ways  aided  more  active  reformers. 
At  her  husband's  death  she  returned  to  America, 
visited  California,  and  is  now  at  home  in  Hopedale, 
near  Milford,  Mass.,  among  many  noble  and  earnest 
reformers  who  once  formed  there  a  semi-religious  com- 
munity ready  for  every  good  word  and  work. 

ABBY  and  JULIA  SMITH  of  Glastonbury,  Conn., 
well  deserve  to  be  mentioned  with  reformers,  since 
they  have  been  willing  to  suffer  in  defence  of  woman's 
rights,  and  to  prove  that  they  believe  "  taxation  with- 
out representation"  is  wrong.  They  have  been  perse- 
cuted by  their  neighbors,  and  their  cattle  sold  for  taxes 
they  believed  ought  not  to  be  paid.  One  of  these 
sisters  has  translated  the  entire  Bible,  and  it  is  pub- 
lished by  a  Hartford  firm.  They  are  aged,  highly 
respectable  women,  and  their  labors  will  prove  "  not  in 
vain  in  the  Lord."  In  days  to  come  their  sacrifices 
will  be  appreciated  and  their  firmness  honored,  as  we 
now  honor  the  boldness  of  resistance  to  tyranny  in 
Samuel  Adams  and  other  Revolutionary  patriots. 
CATHERINE  A.  F.  STEBBINS,  of  Detroit,  has  been  a 
reformer  for  many  long  years,  and  by  voice  and  pen 
assisted  in  anti-slavery  and  temperance  work.  She  is 
now  carrying  vigorously  forward  the  woman  movement 
in  every  possible  way,  in  which  she  is  nobly  seconded 
by  her  husband,  Giles  B.  Stebbins,  Esq.,  whose  work, 
•'  Chapters  from  the  Bible  of  the  Ages,"  has  won  much 
attention. 


WOMEN   REFOEMEES.  853 

SARAH  M.  STUART  of  Hyde  Park,  Mass.,  was  one 
of  those  fifty-two  women  who  called  a  public  meeting, 
made  out  a  ticket  for  town  officers,  and  proceeded  in  a 
body  to  the  town-hall,  in  the  fiercest  snowstorm  of  the 
year,  to  vote.  Of  Mrs.  Stuart  it  is  said,  "  The  cause 
of  woman  and  the  cause  of  the  slave  were  her  first 
love,  the  twin  passions  alike  of  her  early  girlhood  and 
mature  womanhood.  For  eight  years  she  had  been 
slowly  dying  of  an  incurable  disease.  .  .  .  Upon  that 
memorable  voting-day,  at  the  hour  appointed,  the  wind 
and  snow,  a  blinding  hurricane,  swept  the  streets  ;  but 
go  she  must :  so,  wrapped  in  furs  and  comfortables,  the 
strong  arms  of  her  husband  bore  her  from  her  bed  to 
the  carriage,  and  at  the  polls  took  her  thence  to  the 
ballot-box,  whence,  after  her  own  hand  had  deposited 
her  vote,  she  was  in  the  same  way  conveyed  to  her 
chamber."  She  has  gone  to  the  land  "  where  the 
inhabitant  shall  not  say,  I  am  sick ;  "  and  her  memory 
will  be  precious  among  reformers  forever.  JOSEPHINE 
S.  GRIFFING  has  gone  up  higher.  Let  Prof.  Wilcox 
tell  her  story :  — 

"The  noble  band  of  women  who  since  1847  have 
labored  for  the  enfranchisement  of  their  sex  is  now 
broken.  Josephine  S.  Griffing  died  last  week,  quit- 
ting us  before  many  whom  it  was  thought  she  would 
outlive.  Till  lately,  her  name  was  little  known  in  the 
nation;  but  the  poor  and  the  outcast,  the  lame,  the 
blind,  and  the  bedridden,  whose  guardian  angel  she 
was,  will  long  water  her  grave  with  their  tears. 

"  She  was  born  near  Hartford  fifty  years  ago.  Her 
maiden  name  was  White  ;  and  she  was  a  niece  of  Mr- 
Waldo  the  artist,  who  painted  all  our  grandparents' 
portraits,  and  lived  to  paint  those  of  the  grandchildren 


854  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

during  a  hale,  genial  old  age.  She  married  young,  and 
went  to  Salem  to  struggle  with  the  forest  and  the  soil, 
when  Ohio  was  half  woods.  From  Salem  an  influence 
went  out  all  over  the  State,  that  lifted  public  opinion 
to  a  higher  level  in  many  things.  Side  by  side  with 
Parker  Pillsbury,  she  fought  the  devil  of  slavery  ;  and, 
beside  her  domestic  duties,  she  did  yeoman's  service  in 
the  cause  of  freedom.  The  war  brought  her  to  Wash- 
ington, where  for  a  time  she  kept  a  boarding-house  in 
which  George  W.  Julian  and  other  leading  Republi- 
cans lived  more  as  friends  than  as  boarders.  But  the 
time  needed  her  in  a  larger  sphere.  The  exigencies  of 
war  drove  into  the  District  of  Columbia,  after  the 
abolition  of  slavery  there,  thousands  on  thousands  of 
untutored  and  starving  freed  people.  As  agent  of  the 
Freedman's  Relief  Association,  she  undertook  the  care 
of  these,  and  labored  for  them  while  her  strength 
lasted,  with  scarce  a  day's  vacation  but  such  as  sick- 
ness compelled.  The  strong  were  sent  where  they  could 
find  employment;  the  feeble  were  fed  and  clothed. 
.  .  .  She  carried  appropriation  after  appropriation 
through  Congress ;  winning  support  from  the  best  sen- 
ators and  representatives,  overcoming  the  worst,  and 
cutting  the  knots  of  red-tape  that  army  jealousy  tied. 
The  best  men  of  the  nation  were  her  friends  and  help- 
ers. .  .  .  All  over  the  land,  hearts  of  every  station  in 
life  will  thrill  with  sorrow  at  the  news  of  her  decease. 

"  In  1867  she  took  a  leading  part  in  forming  J;he 
Universal  Franchise  Association,  and  from  that  time 
forth  added  to  her  other  tasks  the  active  advocacy  of 
woman  suffrage,  of  which  she  had  long  been  a  sup- 
porter. In  this  she  took  the  leading  part,  being,  from 
the  first,  president  of  the  managers  and  members  of 
the  executive  committee.  In  presenting  this  subject 


WOMEN  BEFOEMERS.  355 

to  Congress  and  the  public,  she  showed  the  rare  tact 
and  judgment  that  marked  her  every  act.  In  noisy, 
turbulent  meetings,  her  gentle,  simple  dignity  com- 
manded a  hearing ;  and  when  she  began  to  speak  in  her 
low,  sympathetic  tones,  the  rudest  listened  with  respect ; 
while  she  carried  her  hearers  with  her  so  easily  that 
they  hardly  suspected  they  were  giving  ear  to  any  thing 
uncommon,  till  her  ceasing  startled  them  first  into 
thrilled  silence,  and  then  into  rapturous  applause. 
Laboring  harder  and  harder,  she  failed  in  health  stead- 
ily ;  till,  at  last  May's  meeting  in  New  York,  a  great 
screen  was  placed  behind  her  on  the  platform,  that  her 
weakened  voice  might  reach  the  audience.  She  died 
of  sheer  overwork,  faithful  and  earnest  to  the  last." 

Mr.  Garrison  writes  in  memoriam  of  his  wife,  HELEN 
E.  GAEEISON,  this  sonnet :  — 

"  The  grave,  dear  sufferer,  had  for  thee  no  gloom, 

And  Death  no  terrors  when  his  summons  came. 

Unto  the  dust  returns  the  mortal  frame  : 
The  vital  spirit,  under  no  such  doom, 
Was  never  yet  imprisoned  in  the  tomb  ; 

But  rising  heavenward,  an  ethereal  flame, 

Shines  on  unquenched,  in  essence  still  the  same 
As  is  the  light  that  doth  all  worlds  illume. 
Thou  art  translated  to  a  higher  sphere, 

To  gain  companionship  among  the  blest, 
Released  from  all  that  made  life  painful  here, 

And  so  prepared  to  enter  into  rest : 
If  stricken  hearts  bend  weeping  o'er  thy  bier, 

Still,  still,  for  them,  for  thee,  aU's  for  the  best ! " 

Her  name  we  gladly  place  among  the  reformers,  as 
also  the  name  of  one  thus  mentioned  by  the  Boston 
"  Commonwealth :  "  — 

"  We  lately  mentioned  the  death  of  HANNAH  Cox, 


356  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

at  Long  wood,  Perm.,  one  of  the  original  abolitionists. 
She  joined  the  first  movement  in  favor  of  emancipation 
with  a  zeal  which  no  opposition  could  shake,  and  no 
discouragement  quench.  The  early  heroes  and  hero- 
ines of  the  cause  —  Lundy,  Garrison,  Lucretia  Mott, 
Whittier,  and  others  —  were  cheered  and  welcomed  by 
her  and  her  steadfast  husband,  at  a  time  when  their 
names  were  outlawed  from  public  respect.  When 
Thomas  Garrett  established  the  starting-point  of  the 
'  underground  railroad '  in  Wilmington,  Del.,  the  house 
of  the  Coxes  at  Longwood  became  the  first  station 
on  the  way  to  the  Canadian  terminus.  For  years  the 
quiet  farmer  and  his  wife  received  the  fugitive  slave, 
and  carried  him  by  night  on  his  way  northward. 
When  in  September,  1873,  they  celebrated  their  golden 
wedding,  Whittier  sent  them  his  poem  (which  will  be 
found  in  his  last  volume)  on  '  The  Golden  Wedding 
of  Longwood,'  in  which  are  the  lines :  — 

4  Blessings  upon  you  !  what  did  you  for  that  sad,  suffering  one, 
So  homeless,  faint,  and  naked,  unto  our  Lord  was  done.' 

Bayard  Taylor,  whose  native  place  is  but  three  miles 
from  Longwood,  was  at  that  time  in  Germany ;  but  he 
also  sent  a  poem  containing  the  following  mention  of 
the  former  guests  of  John  and  Hannah  Cox  :  — 

4  Here  Lowell  came,  in  radiant  youth, 

A  soul  of  fixed  endeavor  ; 
Here  Parker  spake  with  lips  of  truth 

That  soon  were  closed  forever  ; 
Here  noblest  Whittier,  scorned  and  spurned, 

Found  love  and  recognition  ; 
Here  Garrison's  high  faith  returned, 

And  Thompson's  pure  ambition.'  " 

The  names  of  HANNAH  DARLINGTON  and  DEBOEAH 


WOMEN   HEFOBMEES.  357 

PENNOCK,  and  many  others  of  the  Longwood  Progress- 
ive Friends,  belong  with  those  of  reformers ;  for  they 
shared  in  the  spirit  and  work  of  those  who  would  lift 
the  world  from  evil  to  good. 

LILLIE  DEVEBEUX  BLAKE  has  done  much  impor- 
tant work  for  the  suffrage  cause,  having  carried  on 
many  large  meetings  and  conventions,  and  delivered 
many  lectures  and  speeches  on  the  subject.  She 
addressed  the  Constitutional  Convention  in  1873,  and 
the  New  York  Legislature  in  1873,  1874,  and  1876,  on 
that  theme.  She  should  have  been  mentioned  also 
among  lecturers,  having  given  many  lectures  on  literary 
themes  in  various  parts  of  the  country. 

Mrs.  Blake  is  a  writer  also,  having  published  several 
novels  and  sketches,  and  is  still  using  her  pen  vigorous- 
ly for  various  periodicals.  She  has  been  twice  married, 
first  to  a  lawyer  who  died  in  1859,  and  second  to  a 
merchant  in  New  York  City  where  she  now  resides. 
"  Her  father  was  Mr.  George  Devereux,  descendant  of 
Sir  Thomas  Pollok,  one  of  the  first  governors  of  North 
Carolina.  Her  mother  was  Miss  Sarah  E.  Johnson, 
daughter  of  Judge  Johnson  of  Stratford,  Conn.,  and 
grand-daughter  of  Hon.  W.  L.  Johnson,  one  of  the 
first  two  senators  from  Connecticut.  Both  mother  and 
father  were  descended  from  Jonathan  Edwards;  her 
father's  grandmother,  and  her  mother's  grandfather, 
being  his  two  youngest  children.  She  was  born  in 
Raleigh,  N.C.,  and  passed  her  infancy  on  her  father's 
plantation  on  the  Roanoke  River.  After  his  death  her 
mother  sold  her  Southern  property,  and  fixed  her  resi- 
dence in  New  Haven,  Conn.,  where  she  was  educated." 
Mrs.  Blake  is  yet  a  young  woman,  and  will  doubtless 
do  still  more  valuable  service  as  a  reformer. 

The   temperance  reform   has  received  a    new  and 


358  WOMEN  or  THE  CENTURY. 

marvellous  impetus  from  what  is  known  as  the 
woman's  crusade.  By  fervent  prayer  women  have 
consecrated  themselves  to  the  effort  of  saving  humani- 
ty from  the  curse  of  intemperance.  Some  of  the  most 
cultured  women,  unused  to  public  work,  and  shrink- 
ing from  any  undue  publicity  in  Christian  efforts,  yet 
felt  it  a  duty  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  crusaders,  visit 
the  liquor-saloons,  and  pray  with  those  who  were  deal- 
ing out  the  draught  that  destroyed  thousands,  and 
desolated  many  homes.  Women  suffer  from  the  intem- 
perance of  the  men.  It  was  well  for  women  to  rise  in 
their  spiritual  might,  and  do  all  in  their  power  to  ban- 
ish the  intoxicating  cup.  Many  women  thus  became 
reformers,  and  wrote  their  names  among  the  immortal 
ones  "  that  were  not  born  to  die  ; "  but  of  these  blessed 
women,  many  thousands  in  number,  little  comparative- 
ly can  here  be  said.  Their  names  are  in  the  Lamb's 
book  of  life,  and  the  noble  work  they  have  done  will 
be  long  remembered  to  their  highest  praise.  Though 
the  kindness  of  Miss  Willard,  Mrs.  Bolton,  and  others, 
a  few  sketches  of  some  of  the  Western  workers  have 
been  obtained  for  this  volume ;  but, .  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, this  is  hardly  enough  to  do  justice  to  the  work- 
ers in  that  grand  army  of  the  Lord. 

A  volume  called  "  A  History  of  the  Crusade  "  will 
tell  the  story  better  than  it  can  be  told  here ;  and  every 
reader  of  this  book,  who  reveres  woman  and  her 
Christian  work,  is  advised  to  obtain  a  copy  of  that 
book. 

This  woman's  crusade  has  attained  much  historic 
prominence,  and  is  a  marked  feature  in  the  closing 
years  of  our  first  century.  The  following  essay,  read 
on  an  anniversary  occasion,  will  be  read  with  great 
interest : — 


WOMEN   REFORMERS.  359 

"On  the  evening  of  the  23d  of  December,  1873, 
might  have  been  seen  in  the  streets  of  Hillsboro',  per- 
sons singly  or  in  groups,  wending  their  way  to  Music 
Hall,  where  Dr.  Dio  Lewis  of  Boston,  Mass.,  was  to 
deliver  a  lecture  on  temperance. 

"  Little  did  they  dream  that  a  flame  would  be  kindled 
that  night,  which  '  many  waters  should  not  quench,' 
and  whose  light  should  shine  into  the  dark  places  of 
the  earth,  bringing  terror  to  the  evil-doer,  and  beaming 
as  a  '  star  of  hope  '  on  those  sad  hearts  in  whom  the 
last  ray  of  hope  had  well-nigh  perished. 

"  It  is  not  necessary  to  give  more  than  a  brief  men- 
tion of  Dr.  Lewis's  address.  He  believed  and  argued 
that  the  work  of  temperance  reform  might  be  carried 
on  successfully  by  women,  if  they  would  set  about  it 
in  the  right  manner,  —  going  to  the  saloon-keeper  in  a 
spirit  of  Christian  love,  and  persuading  him,  for  the 
sake  of  humanity  and  his  own  eternal  welfare,  to  quit 
the  hateful,  soul-destroying  business. 

"  It  will  be  proper  to  state  here,  that  Hillsboro'  was 
at  this  time  by  no  means  exempt  from  the  universal 
scourge  of  intemperance.  Its  victims  were  from  all 
ranks  of  society,  name,  profession,  fortune,  influence. 
The  hopes  and  ambitions  of  a  lifetime  were  as  noth- 
ing :  all  were  sacrificed  to  the  love  of  strong  drink. 
Mothers  were  broken-hearted,  wives  worse  than  wid- 
owed, and  little  children  were  crying  for  bread. 

"  What  was  to  be  done  ?  The  Sons  of  Temperance 
and  the  Good  Templars  had  made  vain  efforts  to  arrest 
the  evil.  At  times  there  had  been  an  awakening  to 
the  danger ;  and  men  good  and  true  banded  themselves 
together  in  the  endeavor  to  reclaim  the  inebriate,  and 
punish  the  dramseller.  But  these  efforts  seemed  to 
fail  of  permanent  effect ;  and  the  prospect  was  a  cheer- 
less one,  in  view  of  any  fresh  undertaking. 


360  WOMEN   OF   THE   CENTUBY. 

"  The  plan  laid  down  by  Dr.  Lewis  challenged  atten- 
tion by  its  novelty,  at  least ;  and,  seeing  him  so  full  of 
faith,  the  hearts  of  the  women  seized  the  hope,  —  a 
*  forlorn '  one,  'tis  true,  but  still  a  hope ;  and,  when  Dr. 
Lewis  asked  if  they  were  willing  to  undertake  the  task, 
scores  of  women  rose  to  their  feet.  The  men  were  not 
a  whit  behind.  They  pledged  themselves  to  uphold 
and  encourage  the  women  by  counsel,  co-operation, 
and  money. 

"  A  meeting  for  the  further  development  of  the  plan 
and  organization  of  the  League  was  agreed  upon,  to  be 
held  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  ten  o'clock  next 
morning,  —  Wednesday,  Dec.  24  ;  and  at  the  appointed 
hour  there  was  gathered  a  solemn  assembly.  A  strange 
work  was  to  be  done,  and  by  unaccustomed  hands. 
On  bended  knee,  and  with  uplifted  hearts,  they  invoked 
the  blessing  and  guidance  of  Him  who  '  knoweth  the 
end  from  the  beginning,'  and  then  proceeded  to  the 
business  of  the  hour. 

"  A  committee  was  appointed,  who  should  prepare 
an  appeal  which  was  to  be  presented  to  the  liquor- 
seller  ;  also  a  druggist's  pledge  and  a  dealer's  pledge. 
Officers  were  elected,  and  the  morning's  work  planned 
out. 

"  A  psalm  was  then  read  by  the  president  of  the 
League,  Mrs.  E.  J.  Thompson  ;  and,  after  a  hymn  and 
prayer,  seventy-five  women  passed  in  procession  into 
the  street.  The  crusade  had  begun. 

"  It  had  been  decided  that  every  place  in  the  town, 
where  intoxicating  liquors  were  sold,  should  be  visited. 

"  First  the  drug-stores,  as  being  most  likely  to  assist 
by  their  sympathy  and  co-operation  ;  then  the  hotels  ; 
and  lastly  the  saloons. 

"  These  visits  were  made  on  the  24th  and  26th  of 
December,  with  the  following  results  •  - 


WOMEN  REFORMERS.  361 

"  Two  of  the  druggists  signed  the  pledge  unhesitat- 
ingly and  without  reservation ;  the  third  reserved  the 
right  to  prescribe  as  a  physician,  and  sell  on  his  own 
prescription  ;  the  fourth  postponed  his  answer  (the  an- 
swer was  received  by  the  League  a  few  days  after, 
declining  to  sign  the  pledge  presented,  but  offering  one 
of  his  own,  which,  after  careful  consideration  by  the 
women,  was  not  accepted). 

"  The  hotel-keepers  tried  to  justify  themselves  by 
saying  that  a  bar  was  necessary  for  the  comfort  of 
travellers,  that  they  could  not  keep  up  their  houses 
without  it,  that  their  customers  would  go  away  to 
other  places,  &c. ;  but  agreed  that,  if  all  the  rest  of  the 
liquor-sellers  would  close,  they  would,  thus  trying  to 
shift  the  responsibility  upon  other  shoulders  than  their 
own. 

"  The  saloonists  admitted  the  fact  that  it  was  a  bad 
business,  but  were  full  of  excuses  and  reasons  why 
they  could  not  give  it  up. 

"  At  this  time  there  were  in  Hillsboro'  four  hotel- 
bars  constantly  open,  and  five  saloons,  or  dramshops  ; 
these,  with  the  four  drug-stores,  making  thirteen  places 
where  strong  drink  could  be  obtained. 

"  The  efforts  of  the  women  were  directed  to  the 
closing  of  all  the  saloons,  and  inducing  the  druggists 
to  pledge  themselves  to  sell  only  on  a  physician's 
prescription,  or  for  mechanical,  scientific,  or  sacramental 
purposes ;  and  they  agreed  to  stand  by  each  other  in 
this  work  until  the  end  was  accomplished. 

'•'• '  The  end  is  not  yet ; '  but  the  labors  of  the  crusa- 
ders— for  they  have  accepted  the  name  given  in  derision 
—  have  not  been  in  vain.  Let  us  glance  briefly  over 
the  history  of  the  past  two  years. 

"  The  street  work,  which  was  the  prominent  feature 


362  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

of  this  movement,  was  continued  almost  daily  from 
Dec.  24,  1873,  to  the  middle  of  the  following  June.  A 
band  or  committee  of  women  visited  some  or  all  of 
the  drinking-places  —  including  the  drug-store  whose 
proprietor  refused  to  accede  to  the  wishes  of  the  women 
—  every  morning  after  the  prayer-meeting.  A  leader 
was  chosen,  whose  duty  it  was  to  make  the  appeal,  and 
present  the  pledge  to  the  liquor-seller,  and  try  by  every 
kind  and  persuasive  argument  to  induce  him  to  sign  it. 

"At  first  the  men  seemed  willing  to  discuss  the 
question,  to  bring  forward  their  excuses,  and  listen 
civilly  to  the  persuasions  of  the  women;  but  after 
awhile,  finding  that  it  was  not  a  transient,  spasmodic 
effort,  but  was  assuming  a  permanent  form,  and  being 
determined  not  to  yield,  they  closed  their  doors  each 
day  at  the  hour  when  the  women  were  in  the  habit  of 
visiting  them.  Thus  failing  to  gain  admittance,  the 
women  kneeled  in  the  street,  and  prayed  before  the 
closed  doors. 

"  About  this  time  (February)  it  began  to  be  whis- 
pered around  that  the  Ad  air  Law  was  in  danger. 
Immediately  the  telegraph  flashed  messages  back  and 
forth  between  the  leagues  throughout  the  State.  Dele- 
gates were  elected  to  be  ready  to  start  at  a  moment's 
notice  for  Columbus.  A  petition  against  the  repeal 

was  sent  from  H ,  with  three  hundred  and  four 

names,  all  signed  at  an  evening  meeting.  There  was 
not  time  to  canvass  the  town,  and  friends  at  Columbus 
were  ready  to  send  word  of  the  first  attack  on  the  law. 

"  Whether  or  not  this  note  of  preparation  intimidated 
its  enemies,  the  law  was  not  repealed. 

"  Mr.  W.  H.  H.  Dunn,  druggist,  becoming  much 
incensed  at  the  repeated  visits  of  the  women  in  their 
efforts  to  induce  him  to  sign  the  pledge,  and  particu- 


WOMEN  BEFOEMEES.  363 

larly  when  they  had  a  shelter  erected  in  the  street  in 
front  of  his  store,  where  they  might  sing  and  pray 
without  exposure  to  the  winter's  blasts,  got  out  an 
injunction  restraining  the  women  from  visiting  him  ir 
that  way. 

"  Application  was  immediately  made  for  a  dissolution 
of  the  injunction,  and  the  case  came  on  at  the  February 
term  of  court.  The  injunction  was  dissolved  on  the 
finding  of  a  legal  flaw  in  the  application  of  the  plaintiff. 

"  Mr.  Dunn  also  brought  suit  against  the  crusaders 
for  alleged  trespass,  and  asked  ten  thousand  dollars 
damages.  This  suit  was  not  to  come  on  for  some 
months,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  parties  were  not 
ready  for  trial. 

"  Meantime  the  women  decided  not  to  go  on  with  the 
street  work  while  this  suit  was  pending,  having  no  wish 
to  defy  the  law,  even  in  appearance.  But  there  was 
plenty  to  do. 

"  The  Constitutional  Convention  had  at  last  finished 
its  labors,  and  sent  forth,  for  the  consideration  of  the 
people  of  Ohio,  a  new  constitution.  In  this  constitu- 
tion, provision  had  to  be  made  for  the  management  of 
the  traffic  in,  and  manufacture  of,  ardent  spirits. 

"  So  strong  had  become  the  influence  of  the  temper- 
ance movement,  that  the  members  of  the  convention, 
men  of  sound  judgment  and  discrimination,  saw  that, 
to  meet  the  question  fairly,  they  must  submit  to  the 
people  a  choice  as  to  which  of  two  clauses  should  be 
inserted  into  the  constitution  ;  one  favoring  the  system 
of  license  to  sell  intoxicating  liquors,  the  other  opposed 
to  license. 

"But  what  had  the  women  to  do  with  this  ?  They 
were  not  voters.  No,  they  were  not  voters,  but  they 
would  be  sufferers  if  the  State  licensed  this  terrible 


364  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUBY. 

traffic.  They  could  not  hesitate,  they  dared  not  hold 
back. 

"  Meetings  were  appointed  in  the  churches  and 
schoolhouses  of  the  rural  districts  ;  and  to  these  meet- 
ings the  crusaders  went  in  little  parties  of  three  or  four 
or  half  a  dozen,  and  tried  to  infuse  the  spirit  of  the 
crusade  into  the  hearts  of  the  people.  Their  utterances 
were  from  the  fulness  of  their  own  hearts  only.  No 
labored  arguments,  no  long  winded-speeches :  just  talk- 
ing the  matter  over  as  friend  with  friend,  or  as  one 
neighbor  might  speak  with  another.  How  kindly  their 
words  were  received,  and  how  heartily  their  efforts 
were  seconded  by  the  men  of  Ohio,  let  the  fate  of  the 
license  clause  tell. 

"  At  the  close  of  the  summer  of  1874,  four  saloons 
had  been  closed  ;  one  hotel  had  changed  hands,  and 
become  a  temperance  house  ;  auxiliary  leagues  had 
been  established  in  most  of  the  townships  in  Highland 
County ;  and  the  women  had  done  their  share  in  defeat- 
ing the  license  clause. 

"  In  October  of  1874,  the  Children's  League  was 
organized,  and  between  two  and  three  hundred  names 
were  enrolled  as  members.  The  interest  manifested  by 
the  children  has  been  wonderful  and  most  encouraging ; 
and  they  still  turn  out  bravely,  every  two  weeks,  ready 
with  their  songs  and  speeches  to  '  help  the  cause 
along,'  putting  to  shame  some  of  the  grown-up  folks, 
who,  knowing  their  duty,  do  it  not. 

"  The  Young  People's  League  was  organized  Dec.  1, 
1874,  and  for  some  months  was  very  prosperous ;  but 
for  some  perplexities  arose,  and  the  meetings  were  dis- 
continued. They  have  not  been  resumed. 

"  The  work  of  the  crusaders  during  the  winter  of 
1874-75  consisted  principally  in  the  organization  and 
superintendence  of  these  leagues. 


'  WOMEN   REFORMERS.  '665 

"  The  daily  morning  prayer-meetings  were  continued 
until  Jan.  4,  1875,  as  also  the  weekly  evening  meetings, 
by  one  or  another  of  the  leagues  ;  but,  the  pastors  of 
the  churches  having  decided  to  hold  a  series  of  reli 
gious  meetings,  it  was  thougnt  best  to  discontinue  the 
temperance  meetings,  and  they  were  not  resumed  till 
the  8th  of  March,  when  a  meeting  was  called  to  deter- 
mine whether  the  ladies  would  work  for  the  temper- 
ance fair  to  be  held  in  Cincinnati  the  second  week  in 
April.  Committees  were  appointed  to  take  charge  of 
the  matter ;  a'nd  the  result  was  more  than  one  hundred 
dollars'  worth  of  articles  to  send  to  the  fair,  including 
donations  from  the  younger  leagues. 

"  The  suit  of  Mr.  Dunn  against  the  crusaders,  for 
alleged  trespass,  was  heard  at  the  May  term  of  court, 
before  Judge  Gray. 

"  The  jury  felt  obliged,  by  the  rulings  of  the  court, 
to  decide  in  favor  of  Mr.  Dunn,  and  awarded  him  five 
dollars  damages.  The  counsel  for  the  defence  made  a 
bill  of  exceptions  to  the  rulings  of  Judge  Gray,  and 
appealed  to  the  District  Court.  The  case  was  not 
decided  there,  and  was  passed  on  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
where  it  is  now  pending,- and  probably  will  not  be 
decided  for  two  or  three  years. 

"  After  several  futile  efforts  to  secure  a  place  they 
could  call  their  own,  the  crusaders  were  unexpectedly 
notified  of  a  room  that  was  vacant,  and  which  they 
found  would  answer  for  the  present.  It  was  rented, 
cleaned,  repaired,  and  furnished ;  and  the  ladies  took 
possession  on  the  8th  of  November.  A  prayer-meeting 
is  held  there  every  Wednesday  afternoon,  at  half-past 
two  o'clock,  presided  over  by  ladies  in  town ;  and  at 
the  same  place  are  held  the  monthly  evening  meetings, 
open  to  all.  Want  of  time  forbids  the  telling  of  much 


366  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

that  is  interesting.  The  memorials,  the  petitions,  the 
picnics,  the  boxes  of  clothing  packed  and  sent  to  the 
needy,  the  conventions,  and  the  great  enthusiastic  mass 
meetings,  —  all  these,  Ijjse  fair  white  stones,  have 
marked  the  toilsome  way. 

"  And  if  ever  we  are  perplexed  and  hindered  in  the 
prosecution  of  our  work,  if  our  way  is  hedged  up  about 
us,  and  we  know  not  which  way  to  turn,  we  have  but 
to  stand  still  and  listen ;  and  there  shall  come  to  us, 
floating  down  from  the  starry  heights,  the  cheering 
words,  '  Fear  not,  little  flock :  it  is  my  Father's  good 
pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom.'  " 

Proud  of  my  relationship  to  two  of  the  most  earnest 
workers,  each  prominent  in  their  respective  districts,  I 
mention  first  Mrs.  SUSAN  ANN  GIFFORD  and  Mrs. 
MARY  ANN  WOODBRIDGE.  They  are  cousins,  and  of 
Nantucket  Quaker  stock,  the  granddaughters  of  Peleg 
Mitchell,  the  grandfather  of  Maria ;  so  that,  while  one 
cousin  is  helping  young  women  to  see  the  stars  through 
the  telescope,  the  other  two  are  seeking  to  save  young 
men  from  seeing  them  through  the  wine-cup.  Mrs. 
Gifford  labors  in  the  East;,  and  Mrs.  Woodbridge  in  the 
West.  Mrs.  Gifford  was  born  in  Fall  River,  March  2, 
1826,  and  now  resides  in  Worcester.  Mrs.  Wood- 
bridge  resides  in  Ravenna,  O.  The  maiden  name  of 
Mrs.  Gifford  was  Mitchell :  that  of  Mrs.  Woodbridge 
was  Brayton.  Mrs.  Gifford  has  been  a  vice-president 
of  the  Christian  Woman's  National  Temperance  Con- 
vention ever  since  it  was  organized.  She  called  the 
first  Woman's  Temperance  Convention  in  Massachu- 
setts, and  was  its  first  president,  and  was  followed  by 
Mary  A.  Livermore.  She  has  been  president  of  the 
local  society  in  Worcester  ever  since  its  establishment. 
Her  personal  work  by  speech  and  pen  is  immense ; 


WOMEN    REFORMERS.  867 

and  the  same  may  be  said  of  her  cousin  Mrs.  Wood- 
bridge, —  both  of  whom  are  often  heard  in  various 
churches,  preaching  the  gospel  of  temperance ;  the 
one  being  a  Quaker,  and  the  other  a  Congregationalist. 
Home  duties  as  wife  and  mother  are  not  neglected,  the 
little  ones  being  grown  to  helpers;  and  yet  public- 
duties  are  faithfully  performed. 

No  temperance  effort  has  been  so  powerful  since  the 
days  of  the  Washingtonian  movement,  when  John 
Hawkins  went  through  the  land,  portraying  the  misery 
of  the  drunkard,  and  telling  the  touching  story  of  his 
little  daughter  Hannah  persuading  him  to  let  strong 
drink  alone.  As  in  the  days  of  the  war,  many  women 
become  prominent  who  had  until  then  been  quietly 
serving  God  in  their  homes,  so,  by  this  sudden  temper- 
ance awakening,  many  women  were  brought  forward 
into  places  of  notoriety  who  had  never  dreamed  of 
fame  before.  Among  these  was  the  fearless,  conse- 
crated orator  whose  record  is  thus  sketched  by  a  sym- 
pathizing friend  :  — 

"  FRANCES  E.  WILLARD.  —  It  has  become  a  truism 
that  men  of  genius  have  been  endowed  with  their  Fortu- 
natus'  purse  by  a  gifted  mother ;  it  is  gratifying  to 
know  that  talent  on  the  maternal  side  sometimes  sur- 
vives in  the  daughter. 

"Miss  Willard  is  a  happy  illustration  of  hereditary 
laws,  having  had  a  long  line  of  ancestors  who  were 
intellectual  athletes :  to  her  mother,  however,  are  dis- 
tinctly traceable  the  combined  strength  and  grace  of 
her  intellectual  and  moral  natures. 

"  Mrs.  Willard  sprung  from  the  traditional  line  of 
ministers  and  school-teachers  that  has  given  birth  to 
the  finest  type  of  New  England  brain.  She  had  the 


368  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

hardy  constitution  and  the  common-school  education  of 
the  Green  Mountain  girl ;  better  gift  than  either,  an 
eager  thirst  for  higher  culture,  that  prompted  her,  after 
marriage  with  its  added  care  of  three  little  children,  to 
take  a  course  of  study  at  Oberlin  College.  The  old 
college  town  must  have  presented  rare  attractions  to 
both  parents,  with  their  fine  literary  tastes  and  need 
of  intellectual  comradeship  ;  but  both  wants  were  sac- 
rificed to  the  household  penates,  and  a  country  life 
resolved  upon  during  the  impressible  years  of  the 
young  family. 

"  At  Janesville,  Wis.,  on  a  farm  lonely,  but  lovely  as 
blossoming  nature  and  beautifying  art  could  make  it, 
Miss  Willard  passed  the  years  from  seven  to  sixteen. 
The  secluded  life,  with  schools  and  playmates  shut 
out,  threw  her  upon  the  boundless  but  so  rarely 
tested  resources  of  nature,  supplemented  always  by  the 
mother's  unstinted  store.  To  this  early  and  intimate 
companionship  with  the  dear  mother  of  us  all,  who 
reveals  the  secret  of  her  enduring  cheerfulness  and 
repose  to  the  heart  that  beats  in  tune,  we  like  to  attrib- 
ute somewhat  of  the  serenity,  the  hope,  the  courage, 
that  characterize  this  child  of  hers. 

"  The  great  out-door  world,  with  its  rocks  and  vines, 
iaught  the  impressible  girl  morals  and  sesthetics ; 
while  from  books,  the  family  talk,  and  the  thousand 
devices  of  a  wise  and  winning  mother,  the  young  feet 
learned  the  initial  steps  up  the  steep  hill  of  knowledge. 
The  rudiments  of  reading,  and  the  immortal  principles 
of  liberty,  were  learned  together  from  '  The  Slave's 
Friend.'  The  newspapers  were  devoured  with  the 
zest  that  country  life  gives  to  news  from  the  great  beat- 
ing world  of  humanity  beyond  its  ken ;  and  very  early 
the  little  literary  coterie,  mother  and  children,  made 


MISS   FRANCES   E.   WILLARD, 

FIRST  CORRESPONDING  SECRETARY  WOMAN'S  NATIONAL  CHRISTIAN 
TEMPERANCE   UNION. 

Elected  President  in  i8(. 


WOMEN   REFORMERS.  371 

their  contributions  to  the  press,  —  a  genuine  family 
newspaper,  with  its  editor  and  entire  corps  of  con- 
tributors from  the  household  band.  Indeed,  this  wise 
mother  cultivated  in  every  way  the  talent  of  her  child, 
and  shared  fully  in  her  joy  when  her  first  published 
article  danced  before  her  childish  eyes  from  the  col- 
umns of  the  Chicago  press.  At  sixteen  the  young  girl 
made  her  second  literary  venture,  by  competing  suc- 
cessfully for  the  prize  offered  by  the  Illinois  Agri- 
cultural Society  for  the  best  essay  upon  'Country 
Homes.' 

"  Soon  after,  the  removal  of  the  family  to  Evanston 
opened  the  way  for  an  entrance  into  the  new  life  of 
the  schools.  Graduated  from  the  Woman's  College  at 
Evanston,  Miss  Willard  opened  her  career  as  an 
educator  by  teaching  a  district  school  at  Harlem,  a 
Chicago  suburb.  Following  this,  she  became  precep- 
tress at  Genesee  Wesleyan  Seminary,  at  the  same  time 
filling  the  post  of  secretary  of  the  '  Woman's  Centen- 
nial Association  of  the  Methodist  Church.'  The  next 
year  she  was  elected  professor  of  natural  science  in  the 
Evanston  College  for  Women,  and  relinquished  that 
chair  for  a  position  in  the  college  at  Pittsburg.  Mean- 
while she  wrote  the  story  of  her  sister's  life,  published 
by  the  Harper  Brothers,  under  the  title  of  '  Nineteen 
Beautiful  Years.' 

"  In  1868  a  benignant  fortune,  in  the  person  of  her 
friend  Miss  Kate  M.  Jackson,  enabled  Miss  Willard 
to  take  a  tour  abroad.  For  two  years  and  a  half 
she  travelled  with  her  friend,  visiting  nearly  every 
European  country,  making  the  tour  of  the  Holy  Land, 
treading  with  reverent  feet  the  sacred  soil  of  Palestine, 
and  propounding  riddles  to  the  Egyptian  sphinx.  This 
period  was  one  of  unremitting  activity  to  her  eager 


372  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

mind.  Much  of  the  time  she  studied  nine  hoars  a  day, 
mastering  the  French  and  Italian  languages,  and  mak- 
ing great  progress  in  the  history  of  the  fine  arts.  At 
Paris  one  solid  year  was  devoted  to  study,  —  half  that 
time  at  the  College  de  France,  where  lectures  were 
heard  from  the  celebrated  Laboulaye,  Chasle,  Legoure, 
and  others.  '  Harper's  Magazine,'  '  The  Independent,' 
and  the  Chicago  papers  received  articles  from  her 
pen  ;  but  the  choicest  fruits  of  those  sunny  years,  her 
journals,  are  yet  to  be  culled. 

"  In  1871  Miss  Willard  was  elected  president  of 
Evanston  College,  the  first  institution  of  high  grade 
under  a  woman's  board  of  trustees,  and  with  every 
department,  including  the  financial, —  0  genus  vir! — 
successfully  administered  by  women. 

"  In  1873,  when  the  Woman's  College  became  an 
incorporated  part  of  the  North-western  University,  Miss 
Willard  was  elected  dean  of  the  college,  and  professor 
of  aesthetics  in  the  university. 

"  In  1874,  when  it  became  impossible  to  carry  out  her 
cherished  plan  of  government  in  the  college, — apian 
pursued  with  the  best  results  during  its  separate  exist- 
ence, —  Miss  Willard  resigned  both  positions. 

"  In  October  of  the  same  year,  the  great  temperance 
wave  that  swept  over  the  land  reached  the  prairies  of 
the  West,  and  found  Miss  Willard  studying  aesthetics  in 
her  quiet  country  home.  She  who  had  *  never  given 
one  hour  of  thought  to  the  liquor-traffic,'  who  had 
*  never  seen  the  inside  of  a  saloon,'  and  even  drank 
wine  freely  when  abroad,  was  so  stirred  by  the  simple 
story  of  women  who  cared  for  the  tragedy  in  other 
women's  lives  enough  to  reach  out  a  helping  hand, 
that  the  whole  current  of  her  life  was  changed. 
Under  a  steady  fire  of  opposition  from  friendly  ranks. 


BEFOKMEKS.  373 

—  the  blows  that  tell  most,  —  she  enlisted  in  the  tem- 
perance work.  Since  that  time  she  has  been  an  enthu- 
siastic and  successful  leader  in  the  noble  cause.  As 
president  of  the  Chicago  Woman's  Temperance  Union, 
and  corresponding  secretary  of  the  National  Woman's 
Temperance  Union,  she  has  found  a  wide  field  for  the 
exercise  of  her  best  gifts.  Besides  performing  the  duties 
of  these  positions,  and  doing  much  occasional  work, 
chiefly  in  the  line  of  temperance  literature,  she  has 
been  one  of  the  ablest  champions  of  the  cause  upon 
the  lecture-platform. 

"  Miss  Willard  seems  to  have  been  endowed  with  that 
sometimes  fatal  gift,  a  most  varied  talent.  As  an  edu- 
cator, she  had  the  rare  power  of  arousing  the  enthu- 
siasm of  her  pupils,  not  only  in  intellectual  pursuits, 
but  in  the  attainment  of  noble  character.  Her  con- 
stant aim  was  to  secure  an  endogenous  growth  of  mind 
and  soul.  Like  Arnold  of  Rugby,  she  never  lost  faith 
in  her  pupils,  and  she  won  from  them  the  love  and  the 
loyalty  with  which  Harry  East  exclaims,  '  He  believes 
in  a  fellow  I '  As  writer  and  speaker,  Miss  Willard 
possesses  a  dangerous  facility,  that  alone  prevents  her 
achieving  the  highest  results.  Nature  meant  her  for  a 
journalist,  but  thwarted  her  own  design  by  giving  her 
the  heart  of  a  philanthropist.  Ably  as  she  writes, 
however,  Miss  Willard's  rarest  intellectual  gift  is  a 
genius  for  conversation  which  stands  unrivalled.  Like 
Margaret  Fuller's,  her  nature,  peculiarly  electrical, 
demands  the  receptive  and  responsive  touch  of  other 
minds. 

"  These  intellectual  gifts  have  been  supplemented  by 
rare  graces  of  character.  The  brilliant  mental  endow- 
ments and  the  delicate  moral  traits  blend,  like  the  pris- 
matic hues,  into  a  broad  ray  of  white  light  radiant  with 
the  name  of  Frances  E.  Willard" 


374  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

As  no  order  but  that  of  convenience  to  the  writer 
has  been  followed  in  respect  to  any  names  in  this  and 
many  other  chapters,  there  is  nothing  invidious  in 
causing  the  record  of  the  President  of  the  National 
Christian  Woman's  Temperance  Union  to  appear  after 
that  of  the  Corresponding  Secretary. 

Mrs.  ANNIE  WITTENMEYER,  is  that  president.  She 
is  a  native  of  Ohio,  but  was  reared  in  Kentucky.  Her 
grandfather  was  a  graduate  of  Princeton  College,  and 
an  officer  in  the  war  of  1812.  She  was  instructed  by 
her  mother,  and  in  a  young  ladies'  seminary,  receiving 
more  than  ordinary  advantages.  All  through  the 
Rebellion,  Mrs.  Wittenmeyer  was  a  zealous  and  faith- 
ful sanitary  agent,  having  been  appointed  by  the  Legis- 
lature of  Iowa,  or  as  a  worker  with  the  Christian 
Commission,  where  she  had  the  oversight  of  two  hun- 
dred women,  and  where  she  developed  her  plan  of 
special  diet-kitchens  to  the  great  benefit  of  the  soldiers. 

Miss  C.  A.  BLODGETT,  herself  an  earnest  laborer 
with  an  able  pen  as  a  reporter,  and  contributor  to  peri- 
odicals, says  further  of  Mrs.  Wittenmeyer's  labors  :  — 

"  By  invitation  of  the  surgeon-general,  she  met  the 
medical  commission  appointed  to  revise  the  special 
diet  cooking  of  the  army.  The  work  of  this  commis- 
sion led  to  a  thorough  change  in  the  hospital  cookery 
of  the  army,  which  was  lifted  to  a  grade  of  hygienic 
perfection  above  any  thing  ever  before  practised,  and 
from  which  it  will  probably  never  again  fall  to  the  old 
standard.  It  is  simple  justice  to  add,  what  is  a  matter 
of  record  in  the  history  of  the  United  States  Christian 
Commission,  that  these  improvements  in  the  diet- 
kitchens  of  the  army  were  the  means  of  saving  thou- 
sands of  valuable  lives,  and  restoring  noble  men  to 
home  and  usefulness, 


MRS.   ANNIE   WITTENMEYEK, 

FIRST   PRESIDENT   WOMAN'S  NATIONAL  CHRISTIAN   TEMPERANCE    UNION. 


WOMEN  REFORMERS.  377 

"  About  the  close  of  the  war,  Mrs.  Wittenmeyer  set 
in  motion  the  idea  of  a  home  for  soldiers'  orphans,  and 
became  the  founder  of  the  institution  bearing  this 
name  in  Iowa.  It  is  not  generally  known  that  this 
movement  originated  with  the  brave  woman  who  had 
cared  for  the  husbands  and  fathers,  amid  the  dangers 
and  suffering  of  camp  and  hospital  life.  When  the  fact 
that  such  an  institution  was  to  be  opened  in  Iowa 
became  known,  hundreds  of  soldiers  and  orphans  be- 
came the  wards  of  the  State.  By  request  of  the  Board 
of  Managers  of  the  Iowa  Home,  she  went  to  Washing- 
ton City,  and  obtained  from  'Secretary  Stanton  and 
other  departments  co-operating  the  beautiful  barracks  at 
Davenport,  which  cost  the  Government  forty-six  thou- 
sand dollars,  and  hospital  supplies  amounting  to  five  or 
six  thousand  more,  subject,  however,  to  the  approval  of 
Congress,  which  was  afterward  secured  through  the 
efforts  of  Hon.  Hiram  Price  of  Iowa.  That  institution 
accommodated  over  five  hundred  children  at  one  time. 
Branches  were  afterward  organized,  and  the  institution 
still  maintains  a  flourishing  existence.  Mrs.  Witten- 
meyer's  active  mind  next  conceived  the  idea  that  the 
vast  amount  of  female  talent  and  energy  brought  into 
activity  by  the  philanthropy  of  war  should  be  main- 
tained in  Christian  work  in  the  churches.  Bishop 
Simpson,  always  ready  to  co-operate  in  every  move- 
ment promising  greater  usefulness  for  women,  entered 
heartily  into  this  plan ;  and  the  Methodist  Church 
established  a  Home  Missionary  Society  of  women, 
organized  for  the  express  purpose  of  ministering  to  the 
temporal  and  spiritual  needs  of  the  strangers  and  the 
poor.  It  was  made  a  General  Conference  Society  at 
the  last  session,  and  Mrs.  Wittenmeyer  was  elected  its 
corresponding  secretary.  In  the  last  year  over  fifty 


378  WOMEN  OJf  THE   CENTUB*. 

thousand  families  have  been  visited  under  the  auspices 
of  this  society.  At  the  commencement  of  this  new 
work,  Mrs.  Wittenmever  removed  from  Iowa  to  Phila- 
delphia, and  founded  her  paper,  *  The  Christian 
Woman,'  an  individual  enterprise,  which  has  proved 
exceptionally  successful.  She  has  more  recently  estab- 
lished a  paper  called  '  The  Christian  Child,'  which  is 
rapidly  winning  its  way  to  public  favor.  In  addition 
to  this  heavy  publishing  work,  Mrs.  Wittenmeyer  has 
carried  the  large  society  above  described  through  all 
the  difficulties  incident  to  our  general  financial  embar- 
rassment, travelling  thousands  of  miles  in  its  interest, 
and  spealdng  before  conferences  in  every  State  from 
Maine  to  California. 

"  When,  as  an  outgrowth  of  the  crusade,  the  temper- 
ance women  of  America  met  in  the  first  national  con- 
vention, it  was  but  natural  that  they  should  choose  as 
a  leader  one  whose  name  was  already  fragrant  with  the 
blessings  of  a  thousand  homes,  and  whose  achievements 
in  the  past  were  not  only  a  strength  but  a  guaranty  for 
the  future.  The  record  of  the  last  year  illustrates  fully 
the  wisdom  of  their  choice.  Twenty  new  States  have 
been  organized  as  auxiliary  to  the  National  Union. 
*  The  Woman's  Temperance  Union  '  was  founded  with 
Mrs.  Wittenmeyer  as  publisher,  and  a  general  impetus 
was  given  to  the  work  all  along  the  line.  Mrs.  Witten- 
meyer has  labored  without  cessation,  speaking,  writ- 
ing, attending  State  conventions,  of  which  forty-six 
have  been  held  in  the  past  year.  She  has  always  pre- 
sented the  new  society  with  an  ability  of  thought  and  a 
Christian  earnestness  of  manner  which  have  won  hosts 
of  friends  for  the  cause.  At  the  recent  annual  meeting 
at  Cincinnati,  she  presided  with  characteristic  ability, 
and  was  re-elected  president  for  the  centennial  year  by 
a  unanimous  vote." 


WOMEN    REFORMERS.  3'<  9 

"When  the  annual  meeting  was  held  in  Newark,  Oct. 
27,  1876,  she  was  again  unanimously  elected  president ; 
and  the  audience  broke  out  in  singing,  '  Hallelujah, 
praise  the  Lord ! '  The  elections  of  that  afternoon 
will  long  be  pleasantly  remembered  as  orderly,  unani- 
mous, and  accompanied  with  the  singing  of  some  hymn 
as  a  seal  to  the  work.  That  day,  for  the  first  time,  I 
saw  and  heard  a  Quaker  commence  the  singing  of  a 
hymn,  as  Mrs.  Gifford  started  the  verse,  — 

'  We  share  our  mutual  woes, 

Our  mutual  burdens  bear,'  &c." 

FANNIE  W.  LETTER  is  another  of  those  temperance- 
reformers.  She  was  born  in  1844,  in  Portsmouth,  O., 
and  was  the  third  child  in  a  family  of  seven :  hence  her 
youth  was  no  stranger  to  care  and  labor,  which  she 
nobly  exercised.  She  studied  successfully  in  the  public 
schools,  the  Hon.  E.  E.  White  being  her  teacher  in 
the  high-school  course,  and  soon  began  to  teach.  She 
then  studied  at  an  academy  in  Granville,  O.,  where  she 
also  taught  geometry  and  algebra,  thus  meeting  ex- 
penses. She  graduated  in  the  summer  of  1864,  and 
at  once  assumed  the  charge  of  the  Xenia  High  School, 
and  afterward  of  that  in  Dayton.  Here  she  became 
acquainted  with  a  Mrs.  Bates,  who  proved  a  "  mother 
in  Israel,"  and  helped  her  to  greater  consecration  of 
soul.  She  had  been  converted,  she  thought,  at  the 
early  age  of  nine.  In  1869  she  married  S.  Brainard 
Leiter  of  Mansfield,  O.,  where  she  has  since  resided. 
She  gives  this  account  of  her  work  as  a  reformer :  — 

"  When  the  atmosphere  of  the  crusade  in  its  unac- 
countable and  irresistible  manner  began  to  trespass 
upon  so  conservative  a  corporation  us  Mansfield,  I  was 


380  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

immediately  "trying  to  persuade  myself  that  this  wort 
had  no  possible  connection  with  a  promise  I  had 
solemnly  made.  After  some  eight  or  ten  days  of  con- 
flict, and  earnest  prayer  that  unmistakable  evidence 
might  be  granted  me  as  to  duty  in  this  matter,  the 
answer  came. 

"  The  10th  of  March,  1874,  inaugurated  our  street 
work.  At  two  o'clock,  P.M.,  four  hundred  women, 
four  abreast,  led  by  our  president,  Mrs.  Catherine  S. 
Reed,  and  myself,  marched  down  Main  Street,  visiting 
several  saloons,  when  we  were  compelled  to  hold  ser- 
vices upon  the  sidewalk,  under  circumstances  where 
even  the  winds  seemingly  conspired  with  the  Evil  One 
in  scoffing  at  this  effort. 

"  At  the  fifth  place,  some  twenty  only  of  our  number 
were  permitted  to  enter  an  underground  apartment,  as 
it  was  thronged  with  men  and  boys  who  had  collected 
there  in  order  to  *  see  the  sights.' 

"  The  great  solemnity  pervading  the  ranks  of  the 
crusaders,  over  against  the  dark,  damp  underground 
retreat,  redolent  with  the  fumes  of  whiskey  and  beer, 
made  doubly  hideous  by  the  jeers  and  shrieks  of  those 
who  had  rallied  around  the  proprietors,  was,  to  one  who 
had  never  before  entered  such  a  place,  the  very  embodi- 
ment of  all  that  was  evij.  Immediately  the  full  import 
of  the  surroundings  seized  upon  my  soul ;  and  the  fear 
that  this  might  be  the  last  opportunity  impelled  me  to 
step  upon  a  chair,  and  attempt  to  address  them. 

"  So  long  as  reason  remains,  I  shall  never  lose  the 
impression  made  by  that  multitude  of  upturned  faces, 
bearing  unmistakable  evidences  of  the  hold  of  the 
tempter  upon  them. 

"  The  intensity  of  my  soul,  which  was  stirred  to  its 
uttermost,  could  only  find  utterance  in  prayer. 


WOMEN  BEFOBMEBS.  381 

•*  That  hour  brought  answer  to  my  prayer,  since  which 
time  I  have  never  for  one  moment  questioned  my  duty 
in  this  great  matter. 

"  The  past  two  years  have  meant  more  to  my  spirit- 
ual growth  than  all  of  the  preceding,  since  I  took  upon 
myself  the  name  of  Christ's  follower.  I  shall  never 
cease  to  be  grateful  to  my  mother,  whose  unquestion- 
able purpose  in  life  so  early  rooted  my  belief  in  the  word 
of  God;  for  a  nature  so  characteristically  positive  in 
its  demand  might  have  led  to  a  Christian  experience 
clouded  with  doubts  and  perplexities,  had  my  conver- 
sion been  deferred  until  maturer  years. 

"  The  temperance  cause  is  a  work  that  I  dare  not 
resist.  The  force  of  an  intense  interest,  with  which 
nature  has  kindly  endowed  me,  I  lay  at  the  feet  of  my 
Master,  believing  that  even  this  qualification  can  be 
consecrated  in  the  great  effort  of  saving  perishing 
souls." 

Mrs.  McCabe  bears  the  following  testimony :  — 

"  When  Ohio  was  threatened  with  a  license  clause  in 
her  new  constitution,  and  her  alarmed  Christian  citi- 
zens, men  and  women,  poured  down  upon  the  Con- 
stitutional Convention  then  sitting  in  Cincinnati,  to 
protest,  one  of  the  most  noticeable  women  in  that 
grand  temperance  convention  was  Mrs.  Fannie  W. 
Leiter  of  Mansfield. 

"  Entering  a  vacated  committee-room,  the  writer  saw 
standing  alone,  a  small  lady,  delicate,  graceful,  and 
blonde,  her  intellectual  head  and  light  hazel  eyes  bend- 
ing intently  over  a  convention  manuscript  which  her 
critical  pen  was  fitting  for  the  public  ear.  At  the  close 
of  that  marvellous  convention,  in  which  the  piety,  the 


382  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUKY. 

zeal,  and  the  energy,  as  well  as  the  refinement,  of  Ohio's 
women,  were  concentrated  on  the  subject  of  intemper- 
ance, she  made  a  speech  from  the  platform,  which  for 
elevation  of  thought,  gentle  enthusiasm,  Christian 
trust,  beauty  and  chastity  of  diction,  had  not  been  ex- 
celled. The  power  of  a  strong  will  and  trained  intel- 
lect in  a  fragile  form  rose  on  the  convention,  a  star  of 
promise,  in  this  new  and  wonderful  era  of  woman,  as 
related  to  a  great  reform. 

"At  the  Convention  which  followed  soon  after  in 
Springfield,  she  served  with  distinguished  efficiency  as 
secretary,  and  was  then  elected  permanent  secretary  of 
the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  of  Ohio. 
In  this  capacity,  her  counsels  and  suggestions,  her 
appropriate  and  prompt  action,  have  largely  contrib- 
uted to  the  strength,  efficiency,  and  permanency  of  our 
organization.  In  addition  to  this  she  has  borne  a  very 
large  share  of  the  temperance  and  missionary  work  in 
her  own  city,  at  the  same  time  meeting  all  the  duties 
devolving  upon  her  as  wife,  mother,  and  friend. 

"  Mrs.  Leiter  has  a  carefully  and  exactly  trained  in- 
tellect, a  finely  cultivated  taste,  with  manners  at  once 
simple  and  dignified.  Her  mind  is  awake  and  alive  to 
the  varied  interests  of  the  time ;  and,  though  cautious, 
she  holds  regarding  them  positive  opinions,  and  acts 
decidedly.  As  a  Christian  woman  she  moves  on  the 
higher  planes,  loving  and  living  in  the  noblest  things. 
Her  culture,  her  activity,  her  fine  Christian  spirit, 
redeemed  from  all  narrowness,  render  this  still  youth- 
ful lady  one  of  the  most  promising  of  the  noble  Chris- 
tian women  that  Ohio  consecrates  to  her  people's 
reform." 

HARKIET  CALISTA  McCABE  kindly  assists  the  write? 
by  the  following  autobiographical  sketch  :  — 


MRS.   DR.   McCABE. 


WOMEN  REFOKMEKS.  385 

"I  was  born  in  the  year  1827  at  Sidney  Plains,  Dela- 
ware County,  N.Y.  Arvine  and  Eliza  Clarke  were  my 
parents.  My  home  was  located  on  a  grassy  upland; 
the  southern  horizon  bounded  by  a  lofty  mountain  wall 
dividing  the  valleys  of  the  Delaware  and  Susquehan- 
na.  The  eastern  and  western  outlook,  blue  mountain 
distances ;  the  northern,  a  gap  in  the  ranges,  where  the 
Chenango  makes  confluence  with  the  Susquehanna; 
and  between  were  the  little  village,  wide  plain,  tortu- 
ous river,  and  groves  of  intermingled  chestnut  and 
evergreen. 

"  Sometimes  in  the  village  school,  oftener  under  a 
private  teacher  at  home,  instructed  in  the  ordinary 
lessons  of  childhood,  to  which  drawing  and  French 
were  added,  almost  a  hermit  with  the  wild  azaleas, 
arbutus,  ericas,  ferns,  and  evergreens,  under  the  vigi- 
lant eye  of  a  Connecticut  mother  whose  steps  were  all 
ordered  by  systems,  I  reached  my  twelfth  year,  and, 
according  to  the  expressed  views  of  a  family  friend, 
was  '  as  practical  as  a  Yankee,  and  dreamy  as  a 
Hindoo.' 

"  The  somewhat  stern  and  thoughtful  character  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  tempered  the  exuberance  of 
my  spirits ;  but,  upon  my  father's  conversion,  the  influ- 
ence which  the  memory  of  Whitefield,  a  frequent 
guest  when  in  America  of  his  mother's  family,  had 
upon  him,  moved  him  to  invite  the  Methodist  itinerant 
to  our  home.  Our  acquaintance  in  that  direction 
became  extensive ;  and  seldom  a  day  passed,  without 
the  hands  of  these  earnest  men,  either  arriving  or 
departing,  being  laid  in  benediction  on  my  head. 

"  When  I  was  twelve  years  of  age,  my  father  changed 
his  residence  to  Elmira,  N.Y.,  where  I  continued  my 
studies  ;  and,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  became  a  member 


386  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

of  the  Methodist  Church.  Not  long  after,  serious 
reverses  came  upon  my  father,  which  so  roused  my 
sympathies,  and  impressed  me  with  the  instability  of 
earthly  things,  that  I  resolved  to  seek  earnestly  some 
surer  ground  for  hope  and  rest,  and  be  more  than  a  mere 
nominal  Christian.  At  this  crisis  a  devoted  Presby- 
terian clergyman,  with  a  introductpry  letter,  paid  my 
father  a  brief  visit.  When  leaving,  he  sent  for  me, 
and  addressing  me  with  great  solemnity  said,  '  The 
world  is  dying ;  thy  Saviour  hath  need  of  thee :  wilt 
thou  give  thyself  to  him  ?  '  I  have  neither  seen  nor 
heard  of  that  humble  servant  of  God  since,  but  shall 
ever  believe  he  was  sent  with  a  message  to  aid  me  in 
making  at  once  a  complete  decision  to  be  altogether  a 
Christian.  Then  I  accepted  the  world  as  a  place  of 
labor  and  discipline,  and  true  life,  a  ministration  of  love 
through  sacrifice,  even  as  the  Lord  Jesus  has  set  forth. 
"  There  was  a  little  remnant  of  fortune  among  the 
lofty  Alleghanies,  in  mills  and  mountains  of  pine. 
Here  for  a" time  we  established  our  home.  I  was  twen- 
ty years  of  age,  my  spirit  full  of  exceeding  peace,  and, 
with  my  new  views  of  life,  never  lonely.  I  gave  time 
to  sketching  and  botany,  favorite  studies,  and  went 
among  the  people  of  the  valley.  I  found  a  Christian 
man  who  gathered  the  children  into  a  Sunday  school, 
and  let  me  help  him.  They  were  not  poor,  but  stupid 
and  ignorant.  My  father  twice  a  week  gathered,  in 
our  dining-room,  the  men  from  the  mills  for  prayer ; 
and  many  became  truly  pious.  On  a  green  island 
where  little  and  big  pine  creeks  mingle  their  crystal 
tides,  a  meeting  was  held:  the  people  were  converted 
far  and  near;  and  the  gambling,  drinking,  and  the 
sabbath  desecration  ended,  a  little  church  was  built, 
and  the  valleys  generally  reformed. 


WOilEX   REFORMERS.  387 

"  Soon  after,  I  was  solicited  to  take  the  position  of 
preceptress  at  Dickinson  Seminary,  Williamsport,  Penn. 
Never  having  contemplated  teaching,  and  inexperienced, 
I  declined,  but  accepted  on  being  solicited  again  some 
months  after.  The  young  ladies'  department  was  now 
almost  wholly  under  my  care  ;  and  the  desire  to  inspire 
them  to  love  and  seek  the  noblest  things  quite  ab- 
sorbed me.  I  also  taught  drawing  and  French  chiefly, 
which  made  my  life  a  very  busy  one.  Associated  with 
Dr.  (now  Bishop)  Bowman,  I  spent  seven  years  at  the 
seminary,  at  the  end  of  which,  in  1867,  I  was  married 
to  Rev.  Dr.  McCabe,  professor  of  philosophy  in  O.  W. 
University,  Delevan,  O.,  at  which  place  I  have  since 
resided. 

"  The  rising  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society,  like  a  star  above  woman's  horizon,  seemed  to 
me,  as  I  considered,  to  be  full  of  meaning  and  promise, 
and  engaged  my  active  interest  at  once.  In  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  surplus  energy  of  Christian  women  for  the 
advancement  of  the  world,  arid  in  the  new  life  it  has 
given  to  mission  work  abroad,  it  transcends  all  my 
early  auguries  of  its  power  and  necessity,  as  a  new 
factor  in  the  arena  of  redemptive  effort.  It  was  a 
preparatory  step  to  the  wider  and  more  general  home 
work  inaugurated  by  and  for  women,  known  as  the 
crusade  or  temperance  work. 

"  Every  revival  and  reform  has,  if  genuine,  its  life 
first  in  individual  souls.  My  own  experience  before 
the  approach  of  the  temperance  crusade  was  similar 
to  that  of  others.  There  came  to  me  much  sorrow  in 
the  depth  of  my  spirit,  for  the  lost  condition,  spiritual- 
ly, of  the  thronging  men  I  met  as  I  passed  along  the 
streets.  The  Church  seemed  powerless  to  arrest  or 
arouse  their  consciences.  God  seemed  like  an  ever- 


388  WOMEN   OF  THE   CZENTUBY. 

brooding  presence,  desiring,  pleading  for  help,  for  instru- 
ments, 'against  the  mighty.'  The  Forty-sixth  Psalm 
was  given  to  me,  with  the  illumination,  that  the  storms 
and  floods  there  mentioned  indicate  the  strivings  and 
outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  effect  of  which  is 
to  make  glad  with  abounding  righteousness  the  living 
Church.  This  experience  and  promise  I  claim  for  that 
phase  of  the  temperance  reform  which  began  in  '74, 
which  is  resulting  in  so  much  and  varied  good.  I  paid 
little  attention  to  the  coming  *  crusade,'  being  other- 
wise much  absorbed.  I  did  not  attend  the  first  meet- 
ing held  in  our  city  by  Dr.  Lewis.  On  going  the  next 
day,  I  was  amazed  to  find  our  largest  church  crowded 
with  citizens.  Peculiar  solemnity  rested  upon  the 
assembly.  A  minister  rose,  and,  saying  God  seemed 
specially  to  be  calling  women,  requested  me  to  pray. 
Greatly  surprised,  and  timid  at  the  presence  of  the 
crowd,  as  I  knelt,  no  words  were  given  me,  but  those  of 
the  Psalm  above  mentioned.  That  day  the  crusade 
was  inaugurated  in  Delevan,  a  thing  I  supposed  to  be 
impossible.  Immediately  after  the  morning  meeting,  I 
was  sent  with  others  to  the  first  convention  of  « cru- 
saders '  assembled  at  Columbus.  Here  I  first  heard,  as 
the  hymn  of  the  crusade,  *  Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee,' 
and  saw  the  first  time  Mrs.  Thompson  of  Hillsboro', 
and  '  Mother  Stewart,'  with  Dr.  Dio  Lewis,  and  those 
women  who  had  been  praying  in  saloons  the  last  two 
months.  I  heard  many  of  those  women  speak  in  the 
City  Hall,  —  women  who  had  never  before  spoken  in 
public.  They  spoke  with  great  modesty  and  without 
fear,  of  God's  help  in  the  saloons ;  and  some  of  them, 
of  the  inner  life  and  peace  which  had  come  to  them 
through  this  wonderful  work. 

44  At   that   convention  a   bureau   of  correspondence 


WOMEN    REFORjttERS.  389 

was  made  for  the  extension  of  work,  in  which  I  was 
appointed  to  share.  From  that  time  a  large  portion  of 
my  time  has  been  devoted  to  this  solemn  and  interest- 
ing work  for  men.  Next  to  the  care  of  my  household 
and  the  education  of  my  children,  it  is  my  work.  With 
some  regret  I  renounced  for  this,  my  favorite  pursuits, 
and  find  I  have  gained  a  hundred-fold  above  what  I 
have  given.  Without  intellectual  dwarfing,  it  has  en- 
larged my  spiritual  nature.  God  has  given  me  to  see 
that  there  is  no  material  in  the  universe  so  rich,  and 
capable  of  being  moulded  into  forms  so  glorious,  as 
humanity.  Work  on  this  material  yields  returns  im- 
measurably grander  and  far  more  enduring  than  work 
on  marble  or  canvas.  Thus  to  be  enlightened,  thus  to 
be  convinced,  I  count  a  new  accession  of  mental  riches 
and  of  spirit  joy  and  rest,  than  which  nothing  better 
could  now  be  given  me,  and  to  which  is  added  the  assur- 
ance that  a  dispensation  equally  rich  and  restful  shall 
be  given  me  when  there  is  no  more  for  me  to  do,  and 
may  be  something  still  to  suffer. 

"  I  believe  the  most  controlling  element  of  my  life 
has  been  a  singular  trust  in  a  Divine  Being.  Early  in 
my  childhood  I  believed,  that,  in  answer  to  my  request,  I 
was  extricated  from  my  childish  difficulties.  This  con- 
fidence has  grown  with  my  growth,  and  strengthened 
with  my  strength.  It  has  been  sunshine  to  my  life, 
and  has  touched  all,  even  the  smallest  matters,  as  sun- 
light touches  all  below,  small  and  great.  It  has  been 
the  one  bird  which  has  attracted  thousands  more,  and 
filled  the  house  of  my  pilgrimage  with  their  songs.  It 
has  been  my  strength  in  the  annoyances  of  a  day,  and 
the  scenes  which  revolutionize  destiny,  and  still  makes 
the  path  of  life  glow  with  ever-increasing  brightness. 

"  With  a  gratitude  I  have  no  words  to  express,  and 


390  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

with  unutterable  desire,  that  all  whom  God  hath  made 
may  hear  and  understand,  I  here  record  how  perfectly 
God  does  for  his  creature  whatever,  temporal  or  spirit- 
ual, that  creature  commits  to  his  trust.  He  may  take 
time ;  but  any  thing  you  give  to  him  to  do  for  you,  he 
will  perfectly  do,  and  never  fails. 

"  I  could  give  no  true  sketch  of  my  life  without  nam- 
ing the  element  which  has  controlled  and  given  it  shape. 
What  is  it,  that  I,  as  to  my  person,  have  lived  here  or 
there,  or  done  this  or  that  ?  It  is  the  journeys  the  soul 
has  made,  the  altars  it  has  built,  and  the  inscriptions  it 
has  written  thereon,  which  constitute  a  life." 

Mrs.  Leiter  thus  bears  testimony  to  her  friend's 
worth :  — 

"  At  the  Columbus  Convention  to  which  Mrs.  Mc- 
Cabe  has  referred,  held  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  crusade 
work,  she  was  appointed  chairman  of  the  committee  to 
whom  was  intrusted  the  work  of  State  organization. 
Previous  labors  in  the  missionary  field  had  developed 
unusual  ability  on  her  part  as  an  organizer. 

"  The  mass  convention  held  in  Cincinnati  in  April, 
1874,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  anti-licence  interest 
to  bear  upon  the  Constitutional  Convention  then  in 
session  in  that  city,  added  to  the  number  of  the  original 
committee,  authorizing  the  same  to  call  a  convention  at 
the  earliest  convenience,  in  order  to  carry  out  plans 
proposed  by  the  committee.  In  pursuance  of  this,  the 
delegated  assembly  which  met  in  Springfield  the  follow- 
ing June  completed  the  State  organization  by  adopting 
the  constitution  and  by-laws  as  presented  by  her,  under 
which  were  elected  a  president,  secretary,  treasurer, 
and  twenty  vice-presidents  representing  the  various 
congressional  districts  of  the  State. 


WOMEN   REFORMERS.  391 

"  Although,  circumstances  compelled  her  absence  on 
this  occasion,  by  the  unanimous  and  hearty  vote  of  the 
convention  she  was  elected  president,  which  office  she 
to-day  fills,  closing  the  second  year. 

"  Since  the  work  began,  her  untiring  energy  has 
promptly  and  faithfully  met  the  suggestions  of  the 
hour. 

"  Whether  at  her  secretary,  meeting  the  multitude 
of  demands  through  correspondence  incumbent  on  this 
office,  writing  memorials,  issuing  calls  for  days  of  fast- 
ing and  prayer,  or  presiding  in  convention  requiring 
and  testing  the  ability,  nerve,  and  endurance  of  more 
masculine  temperaments,  she  has  proved  herself  equal 
to  the  most  trying  emergency,  without  exhausting  her 
resources,  or  seriously  trespassing  upon  the  interests  of 
a  family  blest  with  a  devoted  wife  and  mother. 

"  After  these  months  of  trial,  under  the  depressing 
circumstances  of  reaction  in  the  cause,  the  united  voice 
of  temperance  workers  proclaims  her  the  *  fittest  of  the 
fit '  for  the  post  she  has  occupied,  and  the  duties  she 
has  met. 

"  A  Christian  character  above  reproach,  whose  name 
is  a  synonyme  for  purity  and  truth,  and  whose  presence 
is  a  token  of  the  spirit  that  dwells  in  and  through  her 
being,  she  claims  the  love  and  esteem  of  all  co-laborers. 

"  Possessed  of  a  '  charity  that  is  tried  and  suffereth 
long,'  the  many  annoyances  that  naturally  arise  through 
human  agencies,  under  her  influence  and  direction  have 
dwindled  into  a  *  creation  of  the  brain.' 

"  When  this  temperance  work  has  become  a  completed 
historic  record,  first  in  the  ranks  of  those  who  stepped 
forward  at  the  call  of  the  Master,  will  be  found  the 
name  of  one  whose  single-hearted  trust,  and  faith  sub- 
lime in  its  simplicity,  aided  in  anchoring  the  cause  in 


392  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

tlie  hearts  of  the  people,  and  directing  the  hopes  of 
Christian  women  to  the  God  of  the  universe,  who  con- 
trols the  affairs  of  men." 

A  friend  in  the  West  kindly  furnishes  the  follow- 
ing:— 

"  ELIZA  JANE  THOMPSON  is  the  only  daughter  of 
the  late  Ex-Gov.  Trimble  of  Ohio,  and  was  born  in 
Hillsboro',  Highland  County,  of  the  same  State,  Aug. 
24, 1816. 

"  Her  father  was  a  man  of  strict  integrity  of  char- 
acter, both  in  private  and  political  life.  His  personal 
reminiscences,  even  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty, 
when  the  writer  knew  him  best,  indicated  a  very  vig- 
orous intellect,  and  were  treasured  by  all,  not  only  on 
account  of  their  individual  interest,  but  as  relating  to 
the  pioneer  history  of  Ohio. 

"  Her  mother  was  exceedingly  lovely  and  amiable, 
and,  through  a  long  life  of  usefulness  and  unostentatious 
piety,  comforted  and  cheered  those  around  her.  She 
was  a  *  Friend '  by  education ;  and  the  soothing  influ- 
ence of  that  belief  told  upon  her  whole  life,  saving 
her  from  the  fretfulness  of  declining  years ;  and  with 
quiet,  patient  step,  she  drew  near  to  the  *  land  of  rest.' 
From  her  parents,  Mrs.  Thompson  received  a  thor- 
oughly practical,  useful,  and  religious  education ;  a 
rigid  but  loving  discipline  was  exercised ;  and  the 
lesson  of  life  was  combined  with  the  recreations  of 
childhood. 

"She  early  imbibed  from  her  father  a  sympathy  for 
;  total  abstinence,'  and  attended  with  him  the  first 
National  Temperance  Convention  held  in  New  York 
to  which  he  was  a  State  delegate. 


MRS.   ELIZA  J.  THOMPSON, 

LEADER   OF  THE   FIRST   CRUSADE   BAND. 


WOMEN    KEFOllMERS.  G95 

"  Mrs.  Thompson  was  deeply  impressed  in  early 
childhood  with  the  earnest  piety  of  her  grandmother, 
Mrs.  Jane  Trimble  ;  and,  at  the  age  of  eleven  years, 
connected  herself  with  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
and,  through  many  vicissitudes,  has  clung  with  great 
tenacity  and  affection  to  the  simple  faith  of  the  Wes- 
ley s  ;  and,  in  all  the  sorrows  and  disappointments  of 
life,  her  heart  has  found  refuge  in  the  '  Rock  of 
Ages.' 

"  In  1837  she  was  married  to  Mr.  J.  H.  Thompson, 
of  Harrodsburg,  Ky.  They  lived,  for  several  years,  in 
Cincinnati,  O.,  where  Mr.  Thompson  practised  law ; 
but,  in  the  spring  of  1842,  found  it  to  their  interest  to 
remove  to  Hillsboro',  her  childhood's  home,  where  she 
has  since  resided. 

"  A  family  of  eight  children  claimed  a  large  place  in 
Mrs.  Thompson's  heart  and  life  ;  and  for  many  years 
she  lived  alone  for  the  domestic  and  social  circles,  ever 
heartily  responding  to  religious  and  benevolent  calls. 

"  Maternal  happiness,  alas  I  is  blended  with  maternal 
cares  and  afflictions;  and,  as  years  passed  away,  the 
shadows  of  many  graves  lay  behind  her.  A  lovely 
daughter  of  nineteen  was  called  to  the  enjoyment  of 
the  *  pure  in  heart,'  in  the  summer  of  1859 ;  and  five 
years  later  her  eldest  born  and  gifted  son  closed  a 
life  of  touching  vicissitudes  upon  the  quiet  banks  of 
the  Susquehanna.  The  shock  was  doubly  great  to  the 
mother  heart.  The  mountains  separated  her  from  the 
death-scene ;  but  loving  ones  were  present  to  treasure 
and  carry  back  his  dying  words,  — 

"  '  In  the  cross  of  Christ  I  glory, 

Towering  o'er  the  wrecks  of  time; 
All  the  light  of  sacred  story 

Gathers  round  its  head  sublime.' 


396  WOMEN  OP  THE  CENTTJKY. 

"  Mrs.  Thompson's  parents,  to  whom  she  gave  many 
years  of  devoted  attention  in  their  declining  days, 
passed  away  about  six  years  ago  ;  since  which  time  her 
surviving  children,  having  arrived  at  years  of  maturity, 
have  sought  their  own  interests  in  life. 

"In  December  of  1873,  the  memorable  crusade 
against  intemperance  commenced  in  Ohio,  in  which 
Mrs.  Thompson  took  an  active  .part,  as  will  fce  seen 
from  the  report.  In  the  cause  of  temperance  she  still 
zealously  works,  and  feels  the  deepest  interest.  When 
the  crusade  began,  her  surrounding  circumstances 
afforded  leisure  and  opportunity  for  devoting  herself 
more  exclusively  to  a  cause  in  which  her  heart  had 
always  been  deeply  interested ;  and  she  entered  it  as  a 
work  for  God,  relying  solely  upon  his  strength  for 
success. 

"  The  press  naturally  commented,  in  various  ways, 
upon  the  unusual  temperance  movement  of  1873  ;  and, 
with  the  unlimited  freedom  of  this  powerful  engine, 
attributed  various  motives  to  the  workers  in  it.  A 
wise  writer,  however,  says,  *  Men  cannot  print  tones, 
glances,  sighs,  or  tears ;  the  heart  always  suffers  by 
being  translated  into  speech."  Shakspeare  tells  us, 
through  Wolsey,  — 

"'  If  we  shall  stand  still 

In  fear  our  motion  will  be  mocked,  or  carped  at, 
We  should  take  root  here  where  we  sit.' 

"  Although  the  excessive  enthusiasm  at  first  mani- 
fested in  this  temperance  work  has  abated,  yet  Mrs. 
Thompson,  with  her  co-workers,  believes  that  the  in- 
terest is  more  profound,  the  work  more  thorough,  and 
good  results  more  certain,  than  at  any  time  before. 
The  highest  authority  declares,  '  When  the  enemy 


WOMEN  REFORMERS.  397 

shall  come  in  like  a  flood,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall 
lift  up  a  standard  against  him.'  " 

MBS.  ROUSE. — Mrs.  Bolton  of  Cleveland,  O.,  kindly 
furnishes  the  following :  — 

"  Great  emergencies  develop  great  characters.  This 
was  strikingly  true  in  our  late  civil  war.  Through  a 
baptism  of  blood,  the  nation  learned  a  self-sacrificing 
generosity  and  heroism,  the  memory  of  which  is  blessed. 
Men  gave  life.  Women  gave  what  was  dearer  than 
life,  —  their  husbands,  brothers,  and  sons.  And  this  was 
not  enough.  When  the  realities  of  Avar  were  upon  us, 
woman's  hand  and  heart  and  voice  and  strength  were 
all  needed  and  devotedly  given. 

"  Among  the  many  who  were  ready  when  the  hour 
came,  was  Mrs.  Benjamin  Rouse  of  Cleveland,  O.  She 
was  born  in  Salem,  Mass.,  Oct.  30,  1800 ;  a  New  Eng- 
land girl,  with  all  their  energy  and  spirit ;  a  descendant 
of  Oliver  Cromwell,  with  much  of  his  invincible  will, 
combined  with  a  manner  retiring  and  gentle  ;  with 
wonderful  executive  ability,  enabling  her  to  preside 
at  meetings,  speak  before  audiences  if  need  be,  and 
carry  forward  any  plans  her  conscience  approved.  She 
was  converted  at  the  early  age  of  ten  ;  was  a  Presby- 
terian till  her  marriage  with  Mr.  Rouse  in  1821,  when 
she  adopted  her  husband's  form  of  belief,  and,  moving 
to  Cleveland,  they  were  the  first  Baptists  in  the  city. 
She  is  the  mother  of  eight  children,  four  of  whom  are 
now  living.  One  was  the  founder  of  a  mission  school, 
for  years  its  superintendent,  its  life  and  strength ;  now 
it  is  a  flourishing  church.  Another,  an  only  daughter, 
has  been  for  years  identified  with  the  orphan  asylum 
and  the  *  Bethel,'  to  whose  husband,  Loren  Prentis, 


398  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

this  latter  excellent  institution  owes  its  founding  and 
growth. 

"  Her  family  cares  never  kept  her  from  the  deepest 
interest  in  every  thing  that  lifted  humanity.  A  great 
worker  in  her  church,  the  friend  of  strangers,  president 
of  the  orphan  asylum  from  its  incipiency,  still  holding 
that  office  at  seventy-six  years  of  age,  she  is  a  living 
refutation  of  the  idea  that  being  the  mother  of  a  family 
absolves  one  from  all  duties  to  the  world  outside. 

"  She  is  remarkably  well  read,  intelligent  upon  every 
subject,  and  a  charming  conversationalist.  She  is 
small  and  rather  delicate  in  organization. 

"  The  secretary  of  the  Northern  Ohio  Aid  Society, 
MARY  CLARK  BRAYTON,  a  young  lady  of  the  highest 
social  position  and  culture,  who  gave  unceasing  service 
for  over  five  years  to  the  soldiers  in  hospitals  and  at 
the  front ;  who  wrote  weekly  for  the  press  of  the  city 
all  the  needs  and  results  of  the  work,  and  thousands  of 
letters  to  anxious  wives  and  mothers ;  who  ministered 
often  till  midnight  to  the  destitute,  maimed,  and  dying 
soldiers ;  whose  name,  with  that  of  Ellen  Terry  the 
treasurer,  Ohio  will-  never  forget,  —  says  in  her  book, 
*  Our  Acre  and  its  Harvest,'  *  Mrs.  Rouse,  the  presi- 
dent of  our  society,  stepped  from  her  life  of  unobtru- 
sive charities,  visited  families  and  villages,  and,  by 
personal  explanation  and  appeal,  secured  the  hearty 
and  enthusiastic  support  of  all  who  listened  to  her 
arguments.' 

"  Those  days  of  making  bandages,  picking  lint,  cutting 
and  making  clothing,  packing  supplies  for  the  sick  and 
wounded,  all  done  so  rapidly  with  eager  hands  and  ach- 
ing hearts,  are  fresh  in  the  memory  of  all.  Mrs.  Rouse, 
at  the  request  of  Gen.  Rosecrans,  accompanied  the  first 
shipment  of  articles  to  Wheeling,  Va.,  and  helped  in 


WOMEN  KEFORMEBS.  099 

fitting  up  the  hospitals  for  five  hundred  sick  men  who 
had  just  passed  through  Cleveland.  Shortly  after  the 
battle  at  Fort  Donelson,  with  two  hundred  and  sixty 
boxes  furnished  by  the  patriotic  women  of  Northern 
Ohio,  she  started  for  Louisville,  there  gained  access  to 
the  crowded  hospitals,  and  gave  her  personal  attention 
to  the  sufferers. 

"After  the  battle  of  Perry ville,  Ky.,  when,  for  some 
unknown  reason,  stores  needed  were  pot  at  hand,  and 
great  suffering  thereby  ensued,  the  aid  society  at  once 
sent  eight  hundred  sets  of  hospital  clothing,  four  hun- 
dred bed-sacks,  &c.  Mrs.  Rouse,  with  the  secretary, 
took  a  trunk  stored  with  oysters  and  other  needed 
things,  and  went  immediately  to  the  scene  of  hard- 
ship. 

"  When  the  Chicago  Fair  was  in  progress,  both  has- 
tened thither,  and  returning  with  enthusiastic  hearts 
undertook  a  like  enterprise,  the  Sanitary  Fair  of  North- 
ern Ohio,  —  work  to  which  many  women  in  this  coun- 
try owed  premature  deaths,  —  and  made  it  a  com- 
plete success,  clearing  nearly  $100,000  for  the  soldiers. 
For  a  territory  so  small  as  this  society  covered,  prob- 
ably not  one  in  the  whole  country  was  so  efficient.  In 
five  years  it  had  collected  and  disbursed  through  its 
officers  $130,400  in  cash,  and  $1,003,000  in  stores. 

"  A  soldiers'  home  was  opened  in  Cleveland,  first  in 
the  depot  for  some  two  years,  which  afforded  relief  to 
over  56,000  registered  inmates;  and  here ^  Mrs.  Rouse 
with  others  gave  daily  personal  attention,  directing  its 
management  minutely.  In  connection  with  this  was 
an  employment  office  which  did  grand  service,  and  a 
pension  office  where  the  secretary  and  treasurer  acted 
daily  as  unpaid  clerks.  Here  often  and  often  hundreds 
of  hungry  soldiers  were  fed,  as  they  passed  through  the 


100  WOMEN   OP  THE   CENTURY. 

city.  Now  there  were  TOO  Wisconsin  boys,  now  1,040 
from  Michigan,  and  as  many  more  from  various  sec- 
tions. At  one  time,  weary  and  faint,  with  good  Mrs. 
Rouse  at  the  head,  and  she  was  always  present,  they 
prepared  repast  for  1,850  on  a  hot  July  night,  the  train 
coming  in  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  '  Her  energy 
and  activity,'  says  Miss  Brayton,  '  notwithstanding  her 
years  and  feeble  health  (she  was  now  over  sixty  years 
old),  put  to  the  blush  many  who  were  younger  and 
more  robust.'  Sitting  now  in  the  home  of  her  daugh- 
ter, where  love  and  commendable  pride  of  the  noble 
mother  have  furnished  delightful  apartments,  with  her 
books  about  her,  welcoming  with  cordial  smiles  old 
friends  and  new,  rich  in  the  memories  of  a  full,  blessed 
life,  she  waits  her  summons  to  join  her  husband,  recently 
gone  from  her.  In  the  great  future,  not  only  her 
children,  but  a  host  of  orphans  and  soldiers,  and  the 
poor  in  this  world's  goods,  will  rise  up  and  call  her 
blessed." 

Says  Mrs.  Wittenmeyer,  in  her  History,  after  giving 
an  account  of  the  temperance  work  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y., 
under  the  leadership  of  Mrs.  Mary  Coffin  Johnson  :  "  In 
the  year  1876,  Mrs.  Mary  C.  Johnson,  the  efficient  and 
talented  President  of  the  Brooklyn  Union,  visited  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  and  spent  six  months  in  successful 
work  in  drawing-room  and  public  meetings.  Her  efforts 
to  help  forward  the  cause  of  gospel  temperance  were 
richly  blessed.  She  addressed  during  her  absence  one 
hundred  and  twenty-one  audiences,  and  conducted  forty- 
one  prayer  meetings.  Her  work  was  chiefly  among  the 
upper  classes,  and  her  drawing-room  and  lawn  meetings 
were  attended  largely  by  the  nobility.  Mrs.  Johnson, 
who  is  a  cultured  Christian  lady,  was  received  every 
where  with  great  attention,  and  the  American  women 


MRS.   MARY   C.   JOHNSON, 

FIRST  RECORDING   SECRETARY  WOMAN'S   NATIONAL  CHRISTIAN 
TEMPERANCE    UNION. 


WOMEN  REFOSMERS.  405 

have  reason  to  be  proud  of  her  record  abroad,  and  the 
National  Union  that  one  of  her  officers  so  ably  repre- 
sented her  in  the  higher  circles  of  Great  Britain." 

SARAH  K.  BOLTON,  who  has  so  kindly  aided  in 
securing  sketches  of  some  of  the  prominent  crusaders 
for  this  book,  is  herself  a  literary  woman,  and  earnestly 
engaged  in  reforms.  She  has  given  voice  and  pen  to 
the  temperance  work,  has  addressed  many  audiences 
with  great  success,  and  has  published  one  of  the  most 
interesting  volumes  of  the  day,  "The  Present  Prob- 
lem," in  which  the  crusade  is  faithfully  portrayed,  and 
high  moral  ground  is  taken  in  reference  to  purity  of 
life  in  man  as  well  as  woman.  Mrs.  Bolton  resides  in 
Cleveland,  O. 

CATHERINE  S.  REED  is  one  of  the  brave  women  of 
the  century  in  respect  to  temperance  work.  She  has 
recently  removed  from  Mansfield,  O.,  to  Columbus, 
Neb.  She  was  formerly  a  high-school  teacher,  and 
with  her  fine  culture  was  able  to  exert  a  wide  and 
beneficent  influence.  When  she  left  for  the  farthei 
West,  a  band  of  ladies  belonging  to-the  Temperance 
League  gave  the  family  a  pleasant  surprise.  After  a 
bounteous  repast,  a  hymn,  and  prayer,  a  resolution  of 
regret  was  read,  and  very  appropriately  answered  by 
Mrs.  Heed.  In  that  written  testimonial,  signed  by 
twenty-six  women,  was  expressed  "  our  appreciation  of 
her  faithful  labors  for  the  good  of  mankind,  her  abiding 
hope,  and  her  strong  faith  which  has  so  often  strength- 
ened ours,  and  her  very  efficient  leadership  in  the 
work  of  temperance.  .  .  .  One  who  has  been  so  thor- 
oughly identified  with  all  our  educational,  social,  and 
religious  interests  cannot  but  be  widely  missed." 

HTJLDAH  ESTES  is  thus  mentioned  in  the  "  Advance 


104  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

Guard,"  the  temperance  sheet  ably  edited  by  Mrs. 
Emma  Molloy :  — 

"  It  is  with  the  sincerest  regret  that  we  record  the 
death  of  Mrs.  Huldah  Estes,  one  of  our  noblest  tem- 
perance workers,  who  passed  from  earth  to  her  better 
home,  Aug.  6,  1875.  Mrs.  Estes  was  born  in  Vermont, 
being  the  daughter  of  Nathan  C.  Hoag,  a  distinguished 
minister  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  a  grand-daugh- 
ter of  Joseph  Hoag,  an  eloquent  divine,  considerably 
known  outside  of  his  church  by  his  '  Vision,'  which 
was  extensively  circulated  at  the  beginning  of  the  late 
war,  and  so  remarkably  fulfilled  in  the  event  thereof. 

"  Mrs.  Estes  early  manifested  a  strong  literary  taste ; 
and  while  yet  a  mere  girl  she  entered  upon  her  voca- 
tion as  a  teacher,  which  she  so  admirably  filled  until 
within  a  few  years  of  her  death.  Next  to  the  mother, 
a  loving,  wise  teacher  fills  the  warmest  place  in  one's 
heart ;  and  scattered  over  the  world  is  many  a  loving 
pupil  who  never  thinks  of  Mother  Estes  excejt  with 
a  quickened  heart-throb,  and  a  pulsation  of  pain  will 
follow  this  announcement  of  her  death.  In  1847  she 
came  to  Indiana  to  take  the  position  of  principal  of  the 
female  department  of  the  '  Friends'  Boarding-School ' 
at  Richmond,  now  known  as  Earlham  College,  and  then 
just  opened  ;  Lewis  A.  Estes,  afterward  her  husband, 
being  the  male  principal.  All  active,  philanthropic, 
and  Christian  enterprises  met  with  her  sympathy  and 
encouragement,  and,  as  far  as  her  health  would  permit, 
her  hearty  co-operation.  An  earnest  abolitionist  when 
the  curse  of  slavery  seemed  as  immovable  as  the  eternal 
hills,  her  faith  was  no  less  strong  in  the  ultimate  tri- 
umph of  the  cause  of  temperance. 

"  When  the  crusade  movement  burst  upon  Ohio,  she 


MRS.   SARAH   KNOWLES   BOLTON, 

FIRST  ASSISTANT  CORRESPONDING   SECRETARY   WOMAN'S   NATIONAL 
CHRISTIAN   TEMPERANCE   UNION. 


WOMEN  REFORMERS.  407 

was  living  at  Wilmington,  and  was  among  the  first  of 
the  noble  band  of  crusaders  to  march  upon  the  enemy's 
forces. 

"We  all  remember  her  brave,  strong,  and  earnest 
words  that  so  thrilled  the  late  State  Convention  at 
Indianapolis.  Sister  Estes  was  a  tower  of  strength 
unto  the  weak,  a  noble  wife  and  mother,  and  that  rarest 
thing  on  earth,  —  a  pure,  unselfish  Christian.  Her  life 
was  a  beautiful  poem,  which  can  only  be  read  by  the 
pure  light  of  eternity.  While  our  hearts  are  rent  with 
sorrow  at  our  loss,  let  us  remember  that  she 

'  Has  passed  through  glory's  morning  gate, 
And  walks  hi  Paradise.'  " 

MRS.  MARY  T.  BURT  was  President  of  the  Women's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  in  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  in  1875, 
and  subsequently  removing  from  Auburn  to  Brooklyn, 
she  became  publisher  of  the  temperance  organ  "  Our 
Union,"  now  in  charge  of  Miss  ESTHER  PUGH,  and 
issued  from  the  Bible  House,  New  York  city. 

EMMA  MOLLOY  must  surely  be  remembered.  The 
brave  little  woman  has  been  a  faithful  and  successful 
temperance  'worker,  and  is  still  in  the  field  as  lecturer 
and  writer.  As  an  editor  she  will  be  mentioned  again. 
CAROLINE  A.  SOULS  has  lectured  upon  temperance. 
And  PHEBE  A.  HANAFORD  has  been  identified  with 
the  temperance  cause  for  many  years.  She  signed  the 
pledge  when  eight  years  of  age,  was  chaplain  and  treas- 
urer of  the  Daughters  of  Temperance  when  eighteen ; 
was  Worthy  Chief  several  times  in  subordinate  Lodges 
of  Good  Templars,  Chaplain  of  the  Grand  Worthy 
Lodge  of  Massachusetts  one  year,  and  a  member  of  the 
Right  Worthy  Lodge  in  18C7.  She  assisted  in  prepar- 


408  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

ing  the  Degree  Ritual,  and  wrote  all  but  one  of  the 
hymns  in  the  ritual  now  used  among  Good  Templars 
for  the  dedication  of  a  hall,  or  the  burial  of  a  member. 
But  the  woman  of  the  East  who  is  most  noted  in  tem- 
perance work  among  the  Good  Templars  is  AMANDA 
LANE.  "  The  Temperance  Album "  of  Boston  thus 
refers  to  her :  — 

"  For  many  years  Sister  Lane  has  been  prominently 
identified  with  the  temperance  reform  ;  and  the  elo- 
quent earnestness  of  her  appeals  in  the  lodge-room 
and  on  the  public  platform  have  been  more  widely 
recognized,  and  have  brought  her  into  more  promi- 
nence, than  any  woman  publicly  identified  with  the 
cause  in  New  England.  More  than  fifteen  years  ago 
she  occupied  a  prominent  position  in  a  division  of  the 
Sons  of  Temperance,  then  existing  at  her  home  in 
Gloucester.  In  1862,  when  Good  Teinplary,  with  its 
broad  basis  of  the  perfect  equality  of  the  sexes,  began 
to  assume  some  prominence  in  this  State,  her  self- 
reliance  and  independence  led  her  to  unite  with  sev- 
eral friends  in  the  formation  of  Fraternity  Lodge  of 
Gloucester,  which  has  always  held  rank  with  the  first 
lodges  in  the  State.  She  was  initiated  into  the  Order 
as  a  charter  member  of  that  lodge,  at  its  institution  on 
the  22d  of  May,  1862,  and  was  its  first  Worthy  Vice- 
Templar.  In  recognition  of  her  dignity,  fidelity,  and 
administrative  ability  in  that  position,  she  was  called  to 
the  chair  of  the  Worthy  Chief  Templar  for  the  second 
quarter ;  and  she  has  subsequently  again  filled  the  chair 
of  Worthy  Vice-Templar,  Secretary,  and  other  offices. 
She  was  not  made  a  member  of  the  Grand  Lodge, 
although  eligible  three  years  previous,  until  the  seventh 
annual  session,  held  in  this  city  in  February,  1865. 
The  next  day  after  she  had  assumed  the  obligation  of 


MRS.   MARY   T.   BURT, 

CORRESPONDING  SECRETARY  WOMAN'S  NATIONAL  CHRISTIAN 
TEMPERANCE  UNION. 


WOMEN  REFORMERS.  411 

the  Grand  Lodge  Degree,  she  was  chosen  to  the  posi- 
tion of  Grand  Worthy  Councillor,  receiving  seventy- 
six  out  of  one  hundred  and  four  votes.  In  1866  and 
1874  she  was  a  member  of  the  committee  appointed  to 
receive  tho  Right  Worthy  Grand  Lodge,  in  behalf  of 
the  Grand  Lodge  of  Massachusetts ;  and  at  both  these 
sessions  she  was  a  delegate  to  that  supreme  body.  She 
was  made  a  member  of  the  Right  Worthy  Grand  Lodge 
at  the  session  of  1866,  and  at  that  session  she  was 
chosen  Right  Worthy  Grand  Vice-Templar,  receiving 
forty-nine  out  of  the  fifty-one  votes  cast.  At  this  ses- 
sion she  also  served  on  the  Committee  on  Constitu- 
tions, and  at  the  next  session  at  Detroit,  in  1867,  on  the 
Committee  on  the  State  of  the  Order,  two  of  the  most 
important  committees  of  that  body.  At  the  last-men- 
tioned session  she  was  unanimously  re-elected  to  the 
position  of  Right  Worthy  Grand  Vice-Templar.  She 
was  also  present  at  the  sessions  of  1868,  1869,  and 
1874 ;  and  of  her  efficient  aid  at  the  latter  session  it  is 
not  necessary  to  speak.  At  Bloomington,  111.,  at  the 
session  of  1875,  she  was  again  elected  to  the  office  of 
Right  Worthy  Grand  Vice-Templar,  and  was  chosen 
by  the  New  England  delegation  to  speak  for  New 
England  at  the  receptive  meeting.  No  member  of  the 
Right  Worthy  Grand  Lodge  receives  a  more  cordial 
greeting  from  the  prominent  members  of  the  Order, 
representing  all  sections  of  the  country,  and  none  com- 
mands higher  respect,  than  Sister  Lane.  Space  forbids 
a  detail  of  the  many  ways  she  has  served  the  Good 
Templars  of  Massachusetts. 

"  At  the  Worcester  session  in  1873,  she  was  elected 
Grand  Worthy  Secretary,  and  performed  its  duties 
with  such  promptness,  fidelity,  and  executive  ability, 
that  the  Good  Templars  of  Massachusetts  honored 


412  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

themselves  by  the  indorsement  of  a  faithful  officer 
with  her  unanimous  re-election  in  1874  and  1875. 

"  Sister  Lane  has  been  for  many  years  a  prominent 
member  of  the  Universalist  denomination,  and  has  rep- 
resented her  Church  and  State  in  its  local  and  national 
conventions.  When  the  Woman's  Centenary  Asso- 
ciation was  organized  at  Philadelphia  in  1871,  she  was 
chosen  Recording  Secretary,  and  subsequently  was 
made  Vice-President  in  charge  of  the  work  in  Massa- 
chusetts, a  position  she  held  until  the  pressure  of  other 
duties  compelled  her  to  resign. 

"  She  has  avoided  rather  than  courted  public  life ;  but 
her  graceful  eloquence,  purity  of  thought,  and  earnest 
devotion  to  any  moral  or  Christian  service,  secure  her 
constant  invitations  to  the  platform.  The  Order  of 
Good  Templars,  however,  should  congratulate  itself 
that  she  has  wisely  decided  to  give  her  public  efforts 
almost  exclusively  in  its  interest." 

Miss  Lane  was  married  in  1876  to  Solomon  F.  Root, 
and  resides  in  Hinsdale,  Mass. 

Having  devoted  so  much  space  to  the  workers  in  the 
anti-slavery,  temperance,  and  suffrage  reforms,  there  is 
little  room  to  tell  of  the  peace  reform,  with  JULIA 
WARD  HOWE  crossing  the  ocean  to  preach  the  gospel 
of  peace  in  England,  and  inaugurating  Mothers'  Day, 
on  each  June  2,  for  the  world,  whereon  mothers  will 
specially  pray  that  war  may  not  come  to  slay  any 
mother's  sons.  Many  of  the  workers  for  other  reforms 
are  enlisted  in  this,  —  ELIZABETH  H.  UNDERBILL, 
AMANDA  DEYO,  HELEN  M.  SLOCUM,  RACHEL  TOWN- 
SEND,  LYDIA  A.  SCOFIELD,  ANTOINETTE  DOOLITTLE, 
and  others  do  valiant  service  in  this  cause. 

Then  there  is  the  moral  reform  movement,  looking 


WOMEN   REFORMERS.  413 

toward  the  establishment  of  purity  and  chastity  in  the 
land.  LTJCINDA  M.  CHANDLER,  ROXANA  HOWE,  M. 
V.  BALL,  and  other  ladies,  have  edited  the  periodicals 
or  written  the  tracts  used  in  this  reform;  and  CAR- 
OLINE TALBOT,  ELIZABETH  COMSTOCK,  PHEBE  A. 
HANAFORD,  and  NARCISSA  COFFIN,  have  not  feared  to 
go  to  the  haunts  of  vice  as  the  bearers  of  a  gospel  that 
cleanses  the  soul  from  sin,  and  makes  the  life  pure  and 
holy. 

Very  possibly  many  names  are  omitted  that  ought  to 
have  been  mentioned ;  but  it  could  not  be  helped.  I 
should  have  said  more  of  LOUISA  A.  SWAIN,  than  that 
she  was  a  Gardner  of  Nantucket,  and  was  the  first 
woman  to  cast  a  vote  in  Wyoming,  when  the  suffrage 
reform  reached  its  height  there. 

There  was  MARY  Y.  C.  GREELEY,  who  should  have 
been  mentioned  as  a  stern  reformer  of  the  Luther  type. 
"  The  New  York  Commercial  Advertiser  "  in  speaking 
of  her  said,  "  Religion,  with  her,  was  not  the  cant  of 
creeds,  but  in  the  grander  acts  of  such  great  philan- 
thropists as  Wilberforce  and  Howard,  in  the  sublime 
stoopings  of  the  Christ-child  when  he  bends  to  lift  a 
struggling  orphan  from  the  gutter,  or  grandly  and 
bravely  breaks  the  shackles  of  the  slave." 

The  list  of  reformers  might  be  extended  to  cover  all 
those  women  who  have  pursued  any  vocation  not  open 
to  women  a  century  ago ;  and  their  name  is  legion. 
And  all  their  sisters  in  private  life,  who  add  their 
prayers  and  sympathy,  are  reformers,  though  they  do 
not  say,  but  live  out  the  words,  — 

"  I  live  for  those  who  love  me, 

For  those  who  know  me  true, 
For  the  heaven  that  smiles  above  me, 
And  the  good  that  I  can  do. ' ' 


414  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUKY. 

As  the  years  go  by  the  Reformers  depart,  leaving  the 
work  to  other  and  younger  hands.  Lydia  Maria  Child, 
Lucretia  Mott,  The  Grimke  Sisters,  Abby  Smith,  Helen 
M.  Slocum,  and  Rachel  Townsend,  all  have  passed  be- 
yond. But  the  workers  come  as  well  as  go,  and  God  has 
his  champions  for  every  reform.  The  Bands  of  Hope  are 
preparing  warriors  for  the  coming  conflicts,  who  shall 
secure  the  victories  of  total  abstinence,  arbitration,  and 
purity  of  heart  and  life. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


WOMEN  PREACHERS. 


Quaker  Preachers  —  Mrs.  Van  Cott  and  her  Methodist  Sisters— An- 
toinette Brown  Blackwell  —  Olympia  Brown  —  Phebe  A.  Hauaford 
—  Ada  C.  Bowles,  &c. 

"  Before  this  altar  crowned  with  peace, 

Tliis  centre  of  our  spirit  home, 
Let  every  strife  and  question  cease, 
And  fruitful  faith  and  concord  come. 

For  here  thy  last  deliverance  stands, 

To  loose  the  palsied  spell  of  fear; 
And  woman  with  unfettered  hands 

Keeps  thine  accepted  priesthood  here." 

JULIA  WARD  HOTTE. 

"And  the  angel  answered  and  said  unto  the  women,  ...  Go  quickly,  and 
tell  his  disciples  that  he  is  risen.  .  .  .  Then  said  Jesus  unto  them,  ...  Go  tell  my 
brethren."  —  MATT,  xxviii.  5-10. 

QO  preach  my  gospel,"  was  addressed  to  woman  as 
much  as  to  man;    and  the  first  to  proclaim  the 
risen  Saviour  was  a  woman.     If  it  be  true,  as  "  The 
Spectator  "  says,  that  "  what  the  pulpit  wants  is  more 

415. 


116  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUKYT. 

freshness  and  less  convention,  more  character  and  less 
formula,  more  freedom  and  less  fear,"  then  the  entrance 
of  educated  women  into  the  ministry  will  secure  the 
desired  result,  and  the  assumption  of  the  pastoral  office 
cannot  be  an  act  of  presumption.  The  thing  has  been 
done,  and  done  well.  Success  has  set  the  seal  of  ap- 
proval upon  the  fact  of  woman  as  a  preacher. 

Said  the  Rev.  Brooke  Herford  at  the  Unitarian  Fes- 
tival of  centennial  year,  held  in  Boston,  June  1,  1876, 
"  I  don't  think  the  day  for  a  true  ministry  has  gone  by, 
and  I  doubt  whether  it  ever  will.  The  soul  of  the 
present  generation  is  as  restless  for  light,  as  earnestly 
asking  who  will  show  us  any  good,  as  at  any  time  that 
has  preceded  it ;  and  he  who  feels  that  he  has  any  light, 
and  he  who  has  any  deep  thought  and  strong  conviction 
upon  those  great  subjects  which  are,  after  all,  not 
mere  matters  of  creed,  but  which  lie  at  the  heart  of 
human  life,  and  are  the  faith  which  works  in  and  out, 
and  makes  all  works  worthy,  —  he  who  has  any  thing 
of  that  faith  will  always  find  people  who  will  help  him 
with  his  livelihood,  in  order  that  he  may  give  his  whole 
heart  and  life  to  that  work.  Yes,  the  world  will  always 
find  a  livelihood  for  him  who  wishes  to  do  this.  And 
not  only  for  him :  I  was  at  a  meeting  of  women  min- 
isters this  morning,  and  I  may  include  the  word  *  her,' 
and  say  that  the  world  will  always  find  a  hearing  and 
all  help  for  the  woman,  as  much  as  for  the  man,  who 
really  has  any  living  word  to  speak,  and  feels  called  upon 
to  speak  it,  and  has  the  power  of  speaking  it  so  that  it 
shall  be  heard.  That  I  believe  to  be  the  solution  of  the 
question  of  the  woman  ministry  that  has  been  coming 
to  the  front  gradually  of  late  years.  It  is  of  no  use  to 
ply  our  old  arguments  about  woman's  right  to  preach, 
proving  it  with  texts,  and  having  a  laugh  at  Paul 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  417 

because  he  said  this,  or  did  not  say  this.  We  have  a 
little  proverb  on  our  side,  — I  don't  know  that  you  have 
it  here,  but  you  have  the  thing  at  any  rate,  —  and  the 
proverb  is,  that  the  proof  of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating. 
And  so,  if  the  preaching  be  good,  it  will  be  heard." 

It  has  been  reserved  for  the  present  age,  and  for 
the  New  World,  —  yes,  for  America,  for  the  United 
States  in  her  first  century,  —  to  show  that  all  are  one 
in  Christ  Jesus,  by  consenting  to  the  fact  that  ecclesi- 
astical functions  are  the  heritage  of  the  daughters  as 
well  as  of  the  sons  of  the  Lord  Almighty,  when  the 
Divine  Voice  says  to  any  soul,  —  pointing  to  the  pulpit 
and  the  pastorate,  —  "  Go  work  to-day  in  my  vineyard." 

The  Society  of  Friends,  or  Quakers  (as  they  were  at 
first  called  in  derision),  have  always  had  women  among 
their  preachers.  Not  a  few  women  of  Nantucket 
Island  were  approved  ministers  among  Friends,  during 
our  first  century  as  a  nation,  —  MARY  ALLEN  .FAR- 
NUM,  MARY  MACY,  and  others.  NARCISSA  B.  COFFIN, 
of  another  New  England  State,  but  dwelling  on  that 
island,  has  labored  successfully  as  a  preacher.  She  is 
a  granddaughter  of  Joseph  Hoag,  the  celebrated 
Quaker  preacher  of  New  England,  the  father  of  a 
large  family,  whose  daughters  were  all  preachers,  his 
sons  also,  and  some  of  his  sons'  wives.  LTJCRETIA 
MOTT,  the  world-known  woman  preacher,  is  a  native 
of  the  same  island,  where  many  have  often  been  led 
to  say,  as  they  listened  to  her  in  the  Unitarian 
church  or  Hicksite  meeting-house  or  Siasconset  school- 
house,  — 

"  She  spoke  of  justice,  truth,  and  love; 

How  soft  her  words  distilled ! 
She  spoke  of  God  ;  and  all  the  place 
Was  with  his  presence  filled."  l 
1  John  "W.  Chad  wick. 


418  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

She  entered  upon  the  work  of  the  ministry  when 
twenty-five  years  old  (she  was  born  in  1793),  and  re- 
mained with  the  Orthodox  Quakers  till  the  separation 
in  1827,  when,  as  she  says,  "  My  convictions  led  me  to 
adhere  to  the  sufficiency  of  the  light  within  us,  resting 
on  truth  as  authority,  rather  than  4  taking  authority  for 
truth.'  The  popular  doctrine  of  total  depravity  never 
commended  itself  to  my  reason  or  conscience.  I 
*  searched  the  Scriptures  daily,'  finding  a  construction 
of  the  text  wholly  different  from  that  which  was 
pressed  upon  our  acceptance.  The  highest  evidence 
of  a  sound  faith  being  the  practical  life  of  the  Chris- 
tian, I  have  felt  a  far  greater  interest  in  the  moral 
movements  of  our  age,  than  in  any  theological  discus- 
sion." Lucretia  Mott  still  preaches  in  Philadelphia; 
and,  though  eighty-three  years  of  age,  her  words  of 
wisdom  are  listened  to  with  great  delight. 

SYBIL  JONES,  one  of  the  best  women  preachers 
among  the  Orthodox  Friends  in  America,  was  born  in 
1813,  was  the  wife  of  Eli  Jones,  and  died  at  her  resi- 
dence in  South  China,  Me.,  Dec.  4,  1873;  thus  fin- 
ishing an  earthly  life  of  sixty  beautiful  years,  filled 
with  love  and  good-will.  A  writer  in  the  "  Woman's 
Journal"  says,  "For  forty  years  she  was  a  favorite 
preacher  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  her  husband  being 
also  a  distinguished  preacher.  They  visited  and  ad- 
dressed a  large  portion- of  the  society  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  In  1851  they  went  together  to 
the  new  Republic  of  Liberia,  to  preach  the  Word. 
From  1853  to  1855  they  travelled  in  the  same  service 
through  England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  Norway,  Sweden, 
the  South  of  France,  and  Switzerland,  being  every- 
where well  received.  In  1866  they  again  visited 
England  and  Ireland,  and  from  thence  made  two  mis- 


ELIZABETH   COMSTOCK. 


WOMEN   PREACHERS.  421 

sionary  tours  to  Egypt  and  the  Holy  Land.  There 
she  presented  Christianity  to  Mohammedan  women, 
from  the  Quaker  standpoint  of  Christian  equality  of 
the  sexes  in  social  life,  in  religion,  and  the  ministry 
of  the  Word.  The  heathen  women  listened  to  her  with 
marked  attention ;  and  schools  in  which  her  views  are 
being  taught  are  now  in  successful  operation  in  those 
countries." 

ANN  KENWORTHY,  RACHEL  TOWNSEND,  CAROLINE 
TALBOT,  and  ELIZABETH  COMSTOCK,  SUSAN  HOW- 
LAND,  ELIZABETH  COGGESHALL,  RACHEL  HOWLAND, 
MARY  H.  ROGERS,  and  others,  should  be  numbered 
with  the  preaching  women  who  have  listened  to  the 
call  from  above,  and  faithfully  obeyed,  to  the  help  of 
many  souls. 

SARAH  SMILEY  was  formerly  a  Quaker ;  but,  choos- 
ing to  be  baptized,  she  passed  from  among  them,  yet 
is  not  connected  fully  with  any  branch  "of  Zion. 
Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps  refers  to  Miss  Smiley  as  "a 
woman  who  has  a  voice  as  sweet  as  a  robin's,  a  face  as 
serene  as  a  Madonna's,  a  courage  as  resolute  as  an  apos- 
tle's, and  a  purpose  as  fixed  as  a  Quaker's,  and  who 
wears  her  bonnet  into  the  pulpit  beside."  But  she 
lays  aside  the  bonnet  when  she  preaches ;  and  her 
expounding  of  the  Old  Testament  symbols  is  very  in- 
structive and  interesting.  She  is  said  to  be  now  writ- 
ing a  commentary  on  the  life  of  Joshua.  Miss  Smiley 
is  between  forty  and  fifty,  and  was  educated  at  the 
Quaker  school  in  Providence,  R.I.  She  has  spoken  in 
many  pulpits  where  no  woman  ever  before  spoke,  and 
has  thus  familiarized  many  to  a  woman's  voice  in  the 
ministry.  She  is  proving  also  that  biblical  scholarship 
and  the  good  work  of  an  expounder  is  not  confined  to 
one  sex. 


422  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUEY. 

Rev.  ANTOINETTE  BEOWN  BLACKWELL  is  the  first 
woman  regularly  ordained  by  public  services  in  Amer- 
ica, perhaps  in  the  world.  She  was  born  May  20, 
1825,  at  Henrietta,  Monroe  County,  N.Y.  At  twenty 
years  of  age  she  went  to  Oberlin  College,  and  joined 
an  advanced  class  in  the  ladies'  course,  and  was 
graduated  in  the  class  of  1847.  She  then  studied 
theology  three  years,  taking  full  part  in  every  study 
and  every  class  exercise  of  the  entire  course,  elocution 
included  ;  but  was  not  counted  as  a  theological  gradu- 
ate because  she  was  a  woman.  Her  first  public  address 
was  made  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  when  she  was  about 
twenty ;  and  she  has  spoken  more  or  less  ever  since. 
She  began  to  preach  sermons  with  texts,  and  regular 
Sunday  services,  in  1848.  She  took  part  in  the  first 
National  Woman's  Convention  in  1850  at  Worcester, 
and  preached  on  Sundays  there  several  times  soon 
after.  That  was  just  at  the  close  of  her  theological 
studies,  and  was  the  initiation  into  the  life  of  active, 
steady  public  work.  In  "  Glances  and  Glimpses,"  by 
Dr.  Harriot  K.  Hunt,  is  a  description  of  Miss  Brown's 
ordination.  She  went  to  South  Butler,  N.Y.,  to  attend 
it  in  the  midst  of  a  raging  storm.  The  Baptist  Society 
opened  their  church  for  the  occasion.  Hymns  were 
sung  as  usual.  Remarks  were  made  by  Hon.  Gerrit 
Smith ;  and  then  the  sermon  was  preached  by  Rev. 
Luther  Lee,  from  the  text,  "  There  is  neither  male  nor 
female  ;  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus."  The  ser- 
mon was  published  at  Syracuse  in  1853.  (The  ordina- 
tion occurred  Sept.  15,  1853.)  The  theme  of  the 
discourse  was  "  Woman's  Right  to  preach  the  Gospel." 
The  arguments  were  forcible ;  and  at  the  close  Mr.  Lee 
said,  — 

"  We  are  here  assembled  on  a  very  interesting  and 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  423 

solemn  occasion,  and  it  is  proper  to  advert  to  the  real 
object  for  which  we  have  come  together.  There  are 
in  the  world,  and  there  may  be  among  us,  false  views 
of  the  nature  and  object  of  ordination.  I  do  not 
believe  that  any  special  or  specific  form  of  ordination 
is  necessary  to  constitute  a  gospel  minister.  We  are 
cot  here  to  make  a  minister.  It  is  not  to  confer  on 
this  our  sister  a  right  to  preach  the  gospel.  If  she 
has  not  that  right  already,  we  have  no  power  to  com- 
municate it  to  her.  Nor  have  we  met  to  qualify  her 
for  the  work  of  the  ministry.  If  God,  and  mental  and 
moral  culture,  have  not  already  qualified  her,  we  can 
not  by  any  thing  we  may  do  by  way  of  ordaining  or 
setting  her  apart.  Nor  can  we,  by  imposition  of  our 
hands,  confer  on  her  any  special  grace  for  the  work  of 
the  ministry ;  nor  will  our  hands,  if  imposed  upon  her 
head,  serve  as  any  special  medium  for  the  communica- 
tion of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  conductors  serve  to  convey 
electricity.  Such  ideas  belong  not  to  our  theory,  but 
are  related  to  other  systems  and  darker  ages.  All  we 
are  here  to  do,  and  all  we  expect  to  do,  is  in  due  form, 
and  by  a  solemn  and  impressive  service,  to  subscribe 
our  testimony  to  the  fact,  that,  in  our  belief,  our  sister 
in  Christ,  Antoinette  L.  Brown,  is  one  of  the  ministers 
of  the  new  covenant,  authorized,  qualified,  and  called 
of  God,  to  preach  the  gospel  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ. 
This  is  all ;  but  even  this  renders  the  occasion  interest- 
ing and  solemn.  As  she  is  recognized  as  the  pastor  of 
this  flock  it  is  solemn  and  interesting  to  both  pastor 
and  flock  to  have  the  relation  formally  recognized." 

At  the  age  of  thirty  this  ordained  woman  became 
the  wife  of  Samuel  C.  Blackwell,  and  since  that  time  has 
retired  from  pastoral  labors,  and  given  her  attention  to 
the  training  of  their  five  daughters.  Her  home  at 


424  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

present  is  in  Somerville,  N.  J.,  where  she  is  often  busy 
with  her  books  and  pen.  Her  first,  or  nearly  the  first 
printed  paper,  was  published  in  the  Oberlin  Quarterly 
in  1849,  but  was  written  some  time  before.  Pres. 
Mahan  heard  of  the  article,  which  was  prepared  as  a 
student's  essay,  asked  for  it,  and  generously  proposed 
to  publish  it,  as  he  indorsed  its  positions.  It  was  the 
first,  pei  haps,  of  its  class  of  expositions,  and  has  philo- 
logical value,  as  well  as  furnishing  a  powerful  argument 
in  favor  of  woman's  preaching.  It  closes  with  these 
forcible  and  truthful  words :  "  But  in  what  portion  of 
the  inspired  volume  do  we  find  any  commandment  for- 
bidding woman  to  act  as  a  public  teacher,  provided  she 
had  a  message  worth  communicating,  and  will  deliver 
it  in  a  manner  worthy  of  her  high  vocation  ?  Surely 
nowhere  if  not  in  the  passages  we  have  just  been 
considering.  Where  have  any  of  the  inspired  writers 
said,  I  suffer  not  a  woman  to  teach  in  public,  and  to 
stand  up  in  the  name  of  her  Redeemer,  administering 
the  cup  of  salvation  to  the  lips  of  dying  immortals, 
even  though  her  spirit  is  yearning  to  break  unto  them 
the  bread  of  eternal  life  ?  This  was  too  sacred  a  sub- 
ject to  be  coldly  decided  by  the  voice  of  law  ;  and  they 
have  left  it,  where  it  must  ever  remain,  at  the  portal 
of  the  individual  conscience  of  every  moral  agent."  * 

At  the  time  Mrs.  Black  well  was  at  the  Woman's 
Convention,  in  1853,  she  was  sent  as  a  delegate  from 
her  church  and  from  a  Rochester  society  to  a  temper- 
ance convention.  Wendell  Phillips  and  Mrs.  C.  A. 
Severance  went  with  her,  though  not  delegates.  Her 
credentials  were  accepted ;  and  she  rose  merely  to  thank 
them  for  that,  intending  to  retire  at  once.  They  re- 
fused her,  though  a  delegate,  the  right  of  -speech,  simply 

i  Oberlin  Quarterly  Eeview,  July,  1849. 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  425 

because  she  was  a  woman.  Of  course  she  could  not 
then  withdraw  till  the  right  was  vindicated.  Rev. 
William  H.  Channing  went  with  her  the  next  day ;  for, 
after  a  packed  house  in  the  great  hall  had  taken  a 
whole  day  to  discuss  the  matter,  they  ended  by  shutting 
out  Mr.  Phillips  and  others,  as  non-delegates.  Another 
half-day,  and  they  shut  the  whole  party  out,  by  a 
curious  action,  which  in  effect  put  every  delegate  in 
leading-strings.  But  the  result,  as  far  as  she  was  con- 
cerned, was  to  give  her  an  opportunity  to  preach  in 
the  same  hall  the  next  Sunday,  to  a  vast  audience,  all 
so  attentive  that  her  voice  reached  every  part  easily. 
Thus  she  shared  with  Lucretia  Mott  in  that  species  of 
injustice  and  persecution  on  account  of  sex" which  the 
second  century  will  be  sure  to  rebuke  in  every  possible 
way. 

Rev.  OLYMPIA  BROWN  (now  married  to  John  H. 
Willis,  but  preferring  not  to  change  her  name)  was 
born  in  Kalamazoo,  Mich.  She  is  of  New  England 
parentage,  and  has  the  blood  of  Gen.  Putnam,  of  Revo- 
lutionary prowess,  in  her  veins.  She  studied  at  Mount 
Holyoke  Seminary,  was  graduated  at  Antioch  College, 
and  has  since  received  the  degree  of  A.M.  from  her 
Alma  Mater.  She  studied  theology  at  St.  Lawrence 
University,  and  is  a  graduate  of  Canton  Theological 
School.  She  was  the  first  woman  ordained  among  the 
Universalists,  though  MARIA  COOK  and  LYDIA  A. 
JENKINS  had  preached  acceptably  long  years  before. 
Neither  of  these  was  ever  settled  as  pastor.  Olympia 
Brown  was  ordained  in  Canton,  N.Y.,  in  1863,  and 
preached  first  in  Vermont ;  but  her  first  pastorate  was 
that  of  Weymouth,  Mass.,  where  she  labored  six  years 
very  successfully.  She  then  removed  to  the  larger  field 
of  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  where  she  still  resides.  She  took 


426  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

her  place  in  the  ranks  of  the  ministry  as  well  furnished 
intellectually  as  any  man  ever  was,  at  least  so  far  as 
study  could  insure  preparation ;  and  in  logical  acumen 
and  forcible  speech  she  has  few  equals.  She  seldom 
or  never  speaks  upon  a  theme  with  which  she  is  not 
thoroughly  conversant ;  and,  when  she  has  finished  her 
remarks,  little  more  remains  to  be  said.  She  has  won- 
derful power  of  concentration,  and  hangs  on  to  an 
opponent  with  a  tenacity  which  forbids  escape  till  she 
has  shaken  the  error  out  of  his  arguments,  and  left  him 
and  them  powerless  and  overcome.  She  is  the  champion 
disputant  among  women  preachers  ;  and  to  her,  as  she 
once  remarked,  the  word  "  conflict "  is  the  best  loved 
in  the  English  language.  Years  of  successful  service 
as  preacher  and  pastor  have  enabled  her  to  prove  that 
woman  has  capacity  for  ecclesiastical  functions  and 
labors.  She  delivered  the  occasional  sermon  before 
the  Connecticut  State  Convention  of  Universalists  in 
1872.  In  1874  her  son  Henry  Parker  Willis  was  born, 
the  mother  still  continuing  her  pastorate.  She  has 
been  already  mentioned  as  lecturer  and  reformer.  It 
is  in  the  ranks  of  the  latter  that  she  is  most  at  home, 
dealing  valiant  blows  for  the  right.  She  has  had  pub- 
lished several  sermons,  and  has  often  contributed  to 
the  public  press  earnest  words  in  reference  to  church 
work  and  reform.  Her  name  will  live  as  the  synonyme 
for  bravery  and  persistency  in  reformatory  efforts. 

Rev.  AUGUSTA  J.  CHAPIN  was  ordained  the  same 
year  with  Olympia  Brown,  and  has  successfully  labored 
in  the  West.  During  the  year  1874  she  was  noticea- 
bly engaged  in  reconciling  adverse  societies  in  San 
Francisco,  and  was  the  means  of  placing  that  flourish- 
ing church  now  in  California  upon  a  solid  basis.  She 
was  afterward  pastor  of  the  Universalist  church  in 


WOMEN  PEEACHEES.  427 

Pittsburg,  Penn.,  but  is  now  in  the  "West  again.  She 
was  a  member  of  the  first  congress  of  women  held  in 
New  York,  and  contributed  a  paper  on  "  Woman  in  the 
Ministry."  She  has  occasionally  furnished  sermons  to 
the  press. 

Rev.  PHEBE  A.  HANAFOED  was  born  on  Nantucket 
Island,  May  6,  1829.  Her  maiden  name  was  Coffin,  as 
was  also  Lucretia  Mott's.  Her  father,  Capt.  George 
W.  Coffin,  was  a  descendant  of  Tristram  Coffin,  the 
earliest  known  of  the  family  in  this  country,  whose 
genealogy  can  be  traced  in  England  to  the  time  of 
William  the  Conqueror.  Her  mother,  Phebe  Ann 
Barnard,  was  thrice  descended  from  Peter  Folger,  the 
grandfather  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  was  of  Hugue- 
not origin.  The  Coffin  and  Folger  families  are  largely 
represented  on  Nantucket,  and,  being  descendants  of 
the  early  settlers,  possess  the  influence  and  honor 
accorded  to  "  first  families."  Every  noted  person  from 
that  island  (and  they  are  numerous)  has  had  the  blood 
of  one  or  both  these  families  in  their  veins.  As  long 
as  "  the  glory  of  children  are  their  fathers,"  a  pure 
and  noble  ancestry  must  be  prized.  Mrs.  Hanaford 
studied  in  the  private  and  public  schools  of  Nantucket, 
was  never  a  graduate  of  any;  studied  Latin  and  the 
higher  mathematics  with  an  Episcopal  clergyman.  Has 
always  been  a  student,  and  always  will  be.  Began 
teaching  when  sixteen,  was  married  at  twenty,  and  has 
a  son  and  daughter.  Mrs.  Hanaford's  literary  record 
is  in  the  chapter  on  *'  Literary  Women ; "  her  poems 
and  lectures  are  mentioned  in  other  chapters.  She 
was  ordained  as  pastor  of  the  Universalist  Church 
in  Hingham,  Mass.,  in  1868,  having  preached  more 
than  a  year  there  previously.  In  1869  she  had  charge 
also  of  the  parish  at  Waltham.  In  1870,  resigning 


428  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

both  parishes,  she  was  installed  in  New  Haven,  Conn. 
In  1874  she  removed  to  Jersey  City,  ai  d  was  installed 
pastor  of  the  Church  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  on  the 
Heights.  Rev.  John  G.  Adams  preached  her  ordination 
sermon.  Rev.  Olympia  Brown,  Rev.  Edwin  H.  Chapin, 
D.D.,  and  Rev.  Benjamin  F.  Bowles,  her  subsequent 
installation  sermons.  Her  hymns  on  every  occasion 
were  written  by  women,  only  one  of  whom  (Mrs.  Soule) 
read  her  own  production.  The  following  were  the 
writers,  each  worthy  to  be  mentioned  often  among  the 
women  of  the  century:  CAROLINE  A.  MASON,  HANNAH 
FARMER,1  NANCY  T.  MUNROE,  ALMIRA  SEYMOUR, 
MARTHA  A.  ADAMS,  EUNICE  HALE  COBB,  JULIA 
WARD  HOWE,  ELLEN  E.  MILES,  LUCIE  F.  JOHNSON, 
LUCY  M.  CREEMER,  CAROLINE  A.  SOULE. 

Up  to  the  present  time  Mrs.  Hanaford  has  officiated 
at  nearly  a  hundred  funerals,  and  over  thirty  mar- 
riages. She  was  the  first  woman  who  ever  offered  the 
ordaining  prayer  and  afterward  exchanged  pulpits  with 
her  own  son,  both  being  settled  pastors.  She  was  the 
first  woman  who  ever  officiated  at  the  marriage  of  her 
own  daughter.  She  was  the  first  woman  regularly 
ordained  in  Massachusetts  or  New  England.  She  was 
the  first  woman  who  ever,  as  a  regularly  appointed 
chaplain,  officiated  in  the  Legislature  of  Connecticut, 
which  she  did  in  1870  and  1872  several  times  in 
Senate  and  in  House  of  Representatives.  She  was  the 
first  woman  in  the  world  who  ever  officiated  in  such 
capacity  in  a  legislative  body  of  men.  She  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Universalist  Committee  on  Fellowship,  Or- 
dination, and  Discipline  in  Connecticut,  and  has  served 
for  three  years  as  chairman  of  such  a  committee  in 
New  Jersey.  She  has  preached  the  occasional  sermona 

1  "  Mabelle,"  wife  of  Moses  Q.  Farmer 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  429 

at  Association  and  Convention,  and  has  been  ^-wo  years 
secretary  of  the  New  Jersey  State  Convention  of  Uni- 
versalists,  which  gives  her  ex-offido  membership  in  the 
General  Convention.  She  was  one  of  the  vice-presi- 
dents of  the  association  for  the  advancement  of  women 
(Women's  Congress)  at  its  formation,  and  has  since 
been  on  its  executive  board,  and  has  furnished  papers 
for  two  congresses.  She  offered  the  dedicatory  prayer 
in  the  new  Universalist  Church  in  Waterbury,  Conn., 
in  1872,  being  the  first  who  was  ever  called  to  such 
service.  And  she  was  the  first  woman  minister  who  ever 
gave  the  charge  at  the  ordination  of  a  man  minister,  — 
the  occasion  being  the  ordination  of  Rev.  W.  G.  Has- 
kell,  in  Marblehead,  Mass.  She  officiated  at  the  funer- 
al of  the  oldest  Free  Mason  of  Connecticut  in  1874,1 
and  the  same  year  at  that  of  the  oldest  Free  Mason  in 
America;2  and  was  the  first  woman  who  ever  attended 
a  Masonic  festival,  and  responded  with  an  address  to  a 
toast  by  regular  appointment.  These  things  are  men- 
tioned, not  alone  to  mark  her  as  a  pioneer,  but  to  show 
what  woman  can  do  hereafter.  She  is  seeking  to  open 
the  way  for  other  women,  as  Olympia  Brown,  Lucy 
Stone,  Lucretia  Mott,  and  others  have  opened  the  way 
for  her.  She  disclaims  credit  for  having  walked  in  a 
God-appointed  path;  but  only  claims  to  be  a  busy, 
hopeful,  loving  woman,  whose  highest  joy  will  be  at- 
tained when  right  shall  triumph  over  might,  and  every 
soul  shall  be  saved  from  sin. 

Among  those  whom  Olympia  Brown  helped  toward 
the  ministry  was  a  young  girl,  RUTH  AUGUSTA  DA- 
MON, who  has  since  studied  at  Canton  Theological 
School  in  New  York,  then  married  one  of  our  men  min- 
isters, Rev.  James  B.  Tabor;  has  recently  been  licensed 

i  Samuel  Wire.  «  Daniel  Bostwick. 


430  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

by  the  Vermont  State  Convention.  Rev.  Mrs.  MARIANA 
THOMPSON  FOLSOM,  the  wife  also  of  a  minister  of  out 
faith,  Rev.  Allen  P.  Folsom,  studied  at  Canton,  was  or- 
dained in  the  West  in  1870,  and  is  still  actively  en- 
gaged in  ministerial  service.  She  is  the  mother  of  one 
child.  She  was  at  one  time  the  successor  of  Olympia 
Brown  at  Weymouth,  Mass. ;  and  while  she  was  there 
Mrs.  CAROLINE  I.  JAMES  preached  her  first  sermon  in 
that  pulpit,  —  a  lady  who  has  not  yet  been  ordained, 
but  is  at  work  on  a  book  called  "  Primitive  Religions." 

In  1869  Rev.  PRUDY  LE  CLERC  was  ordained.  She 
now  preaches  in  Mount  Pleasant,  Iowa.  In  1871  Rev. 
ELIZA  TUPPER,  who  afterwards  married,  and  is  now 
known  as  Rev.  ELIZA  TUPPER  WILKES,  was  ordained, 
and  labored  with  success,  in  Rochester,  Minn.,  till  her 
removal  to  Black  Hawk,  Col.,  where  she  still  engages 
in  missionary  labors  when  her  health  will  allow,  and 
opportunity  is  afforded. 

Rev.  LORENZA  HAYNES,  born  in  Waltham,  Mass., 
April  14,  1820,  was  ordained  in  1874,  at  Hallowell, 
Me.,  where  she  has  been  a  successful  preacher.  She 
was  the  oldest  woman  who  ever  studied  in  Canton 
Theological  School,  or  was  ever  ordained ;  but  her 
more  than  fifty  years  of  earnest  study  and  faithful 
teaching  in  Lowell,  Mass.,  and  Rochester,  N.Y.,  and 
efficient  labors  as  librarian  for  six  years  in  the  public 
library  of  her  native  town,  furnished  her  intellectually 
with  great  thoroughness  for  her  work.  She  had  long 
been  a  writer  for  various  periodicals  ;  and  her  graceful 
pen  could  not  be  better  used  than  in  the  service  of  the 
pulpit  as  well  as  the  press.  She  has  recently  accepted 
a  call  to  Marlboro',  Mass.  She  has  lectured  on  various 
themes,  and  has  acted  as  chaplain  in  the  Maine  Legis- 
lature. 

*  Ordained  in  1878.  2  Since  deceased. 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  431 

Rev.  ADA  C.  BOWLES  was  ordained  at  the  meeting 
of  the  State  Convention  in  Bradford,  Penn.,  in  1875, 
and  is  the  successful  pastor  of  the  church  in  Easton, 
Penn.,  though  she  still  resides  in  Philadelphia,  where 
her  husband,  Rev.  B.  F.  Bowles,  is  pastor  of  a  flourish- 
ing church.  She  was  born  in  Gloucester,  Mass.,  Aug. 
2,  1836,  and  has  been  a  welcomed  lecturer  on  suffrage 
and  temperance  for  many  years.  She  married  Mr. 
Bowles  in  1858,  and  studied  theology  with  him.  She 
had  previously  been  a  teacher.  She  preached  her  first 
sermon  in  Webster,  Mass.,  June  27,  1869.  She  is  a 
woman  of  superior  ability,  and  a  good  preacher. 

Besides  these  ordained  and  settled  women  ministers, 
there  are  others  who  often  preach :  among  them,  Mrs. 
ELIZABETH  M.  BRTJCE  of  Melrose,  Mass.,  who  is  the 
author  of  several  excellent  works  for  children,  and  is 
the  present  editor  of  the  Sunday-school  paper  published 
hi  Boston,  called  «« The  Myrtle ;  "  Mrs.  FIDELIA  WOOL- 
LEY  GILLETT  of  Rochester,  Mich.,  who  is  the  daughter 
of  Rev.  Edward  Mott  Woolley,  and  appears  to  inherit 
her  father's  ability  as  a  preacher;  Miss  FLORENCE 
ELLEN  KOLLOCK  of  Bellville,  Wis.,  who  has  just  fin- 
ished her  studies  in  Canton  Theological  School. 

Miss  ELLA  ELIZABETH  BARTLETT  and  Miss  AF- 
NETTE  SHAW  are  now  studying  for  the  ministry  in 
Canton.  Miss  Bartlett,  who  was  baptized  by  Mrs. 
Hanaford  at  New  Haven,  in  1872,  preached  her  first 
sermon  in  Nyack,  on  Sept.  26,  1875,  to  great  accept- 
ance. Mrs.  ABBIE  ELLSWORTH  DANFORTH  is  studying 
for  the  ministry  at  Canton  Theological  School.  She  is 
from  Peru,  O.,  and  gives  promise  of  usefulness. 

Besides  these  ordained  and  licensed  preachers  and 
theological  students,  there  are  women  in  the  Universal- 
Ist  denomination  who  serve  as  lay-preachers,  with  or 


432  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTUBY. 

without  license,  as  they  choose.  Mrs.  Caroline  A. 
Soule  is  one  of  these.  The  widow  of  a  minister,  thor- 
oughly educated,  and  with  the  varied  experience  of  a 
wife  and  mother,  an  author  and  editor,  a  brilliant 
writer  in  prose  and  verse,  the  present  editor  of  the  best 
Sunday-school  paper  of  the  denomination,  she  has  done 
yeoman's  service  in  the  behalf  of  woman  and  woman- 
hood, of  truth  and  freedom,  of  enlightened  motherhood, 
and  the  higher  education  of  our  sex.  In  1875  she  was 
in  Scotland  seeking  health,  but,  even  in  her  feeble  state, 
preached  and  lectured  to  large  and  enthusiastic  audi- 
ences, and  taught  our  sisters  abroad  something  of  what 
a  woman  can  do  ;  and  pronounced  the  sentence  of  con- 
secration of  the  first  Universalist  church  in  Scotland. 

Mrs.  MABY  C.  WEBSTER,  wife  of  Rev.  Charles  H. 
Webster  of  Hartford,  Conn., 'preached  her  first  sermon 
in  Mrs.  Hanaford's  pulpit,  in  1872,  and  has  often  since 
proclaimed  the  gospel  acceptably.  She  also  is  an 
excellent  writer  for  our  papers,  in  prose  and  verse. 

Mrs.  JANE  C.  PATTERSON,  wife  of  Rev.  Dr.  Patter- 
son, of  Boston  Highlands,  Mass.,  who  is  also  a  fine 
writer,  has  often  preached  for  her  husband  acceptably. 

Last,  but  not  least,  one  whose  very  name  will  be 
sufficient  to  show  that  even  unlicensed  women  speakers 
are  acceptable  in  the  pulpit,  Mrs.  MARY  A.  LIVEEMOEE 
—  whose  husband,  Rev.  Daniel  P.  Livermore,  one  of 
nature's  noblemen,  is  successor  of  Mrs.  Hanaford  in 
the  Hingham  pulpit  —  preached  her  first  sermon  there 
in  1869,  as  a  labor  of  love  for  Mrs.  Hanaford.  None 
need  be  told  how  pastor  and  people  hung  upon  her 
eloquent  words,  as  "  apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of 
silver."  Her  sabbaths  are  seldom  idle  ones;  and  her 
preaching  is  everywhere  acceptable. 

SARAH  M.  C.  PERKINS  "  was  born  in  Otsego,  N.Y. 


WOMEN  PREACHEBS.  433 

April  23,  1824.  She  was  the  seventh  child  of  her 
parents,  and  one  of  a  family  of  nine  children.  Her 
father  belonged  to  a  branch  of  the  Clinton  family  that 
were  distinguished  in  the  early  history  of  the  country. 
They  came  from  England,  and  dearly  loved  the  mother 
country,  but  loved  freedom  and  right  better,  and  took 
an  active  part  in  the  early  struggle  for  the  independ- 
ence of  the  colonies. 

"  The  name  of  the  mother  was  Mathewson.  This 
family  was  of  Scotch  origin ;  some  members  of  it  settled 
in  Connecticut,  others  in  Rhode  Island,  and  nearly  all 
of  them  became  wealthy  and  prosperous.  They  were 
Puritans,  who  braved  the  dangers  and  the  hardships  of 
the  New  World,  rather  than  submit  to  the  religious 
intolerance  of  the  Old. 

"  Mrs.  Perkins  always  speaks  of  her  mother  as  a 
woman  of  remarkable  native  talent,  strong  and  efficient, 
yet  possessing  a  heart  full  of  kindness  and  generosity 
to  every  living  being.  She  was  particularly  kind  to  the 
unfortunate.  Her  children  were  so  accustomed  to  run 
on  errands  of  mercy  to  the  poorer  ones  around  them, 
carrying  milk,  or  a  piece  of  meat,  or  a  loaf  of  bread, 
that,  when  old  enough  to  think  of  it  at  all,  they  were 
surprised  that  other  children  were  not  out  on  similar 
errands.  It  seemed  such  a  right  and  proper  thing  to 
do,  that  they  were  surprised  that  others  did  not  enjoy 
the  same  pleasure. 

"  When  the  subject  of  this  notice  was  ten  years  of  age, 
the  father  died  very  suddenly ;  and  it  was  found  neces- 
sary that  all  the  children  who  were  old  enough  should 
earn  their  own  support.  At  that  early  age  even,  she 
was  the  best  scholar  in  the  district  school;  and  she  shed 
many  bitter  tears  when  she  found  that  the  precious 
school  privileges  must  all  be  relinquished.  Yet  no  out- 


434  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

ward  murmur  was  heard.  To  the  members  of  the 
family  she  was  as  cheerful  as  ever,  as  she  went  to  her 
daily  tasks.  With  a  quivering  lip,  but  with  a  brave; 
childish  heart,  she  put  away  the  schoolbooks  that  she 
loved  so  well,  and  went  to  the  work  that  she  did  not 
love  in  a  cotton-mill. 

"  Yet  amid  these  uncongenial  surroundings  she  kept 
along  with  her  studies.  Books  were  strictly  forbidden ; 
but  a  few  leaves  of  the  book  would  be  smuggled  into 
the  pocket,  and,  when  a  spare  moment  came,  the  eyes 
and  the  memory  were  busy,  and  the  lesson  learned. 
Or,  in  the  early  morning  before  she  went  to  her  task,  a 
sum  in  the  arithmetic  would  be  carefully  copied  upon 
a  piece  of  paper ;  another  piece  of  paper  and  pencil  were 
ready;  and,  when  the  spare  moment  came,  that  sum 
would  be  carefully  worked  out.  Those  around  her 
called  her  a  queer  child,  and  often  wondered  what  she 
was  '  digging  at?  Sometimes  the  paper  would  give 
out,  and  then  the  figures  would  be  placed  upon  the 
smoky  walls ;  and  there  they  remained  long  after  the 
studious  child  stood  at  a  teacher's  desk  in  another 
State. 

"  Her  allotted  tasks  were  never  neglected  ;  indeed,  she 
became  a  proficient  in  her  employment,  and  was  rapidly 
promoted  from  one  room  to  another,  even  when  so 
small  that  a  little  platform  was  erected  to  increase  her 
height  as  she  stood  before  the  noisy  machines.  When 
she  was  fifteen  years  of  age  she  lost  a  dear  sister  by 
death,  a  beautiful  girl  twenty-two  years  of  age.  She 
had  almost  idolized  this  sister,  and  was  inconsolable  in 
her  grief.  Life  was  loathsome  to  her ;  and  she  craved, 
she  madly  prayed  for,  the  rest  of  the  grave.  During 
this  severe  grief,  she  wondered  how  the  birds  could 
sing,  or  the  sun  shine,  in  such  a  miserable  world,  where 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  435 

the  fondest  ties  were  so  suddenly  broken.  It  was  in 
this  time  of  darkness  that  she  began  earnestly  to  in- 
quire about  the  immortal  life  brought  to  light  in  the 
gospel.  She  eagerly  studied  the  Bible,  and  strove  ear- 
nestly for  the  newness  of  heart  that  brings  reconcilia- 
tion to  God,  even  in  severe  afflictions.  The  peace 
came  at  length,  not  with  the  sudden  brightness  that 
blinded  Saul  of  Tarsus,  but  with  the  cry,  '  Lord,  I  be- 
believe  :  help  thou  mine  unbelief.' 

"  Unreservedly  she  consecrated  herself  to  God  and  to 
his  cause  in  the  world.  Then  the  desire  came  to  her  to 
be  a  missionary  in  foreign  lands.  Her  own  heart  was 
full  of  zeal ;  and  she  wanted  to  tell  others  of  this  inner 
life,  the  '  life  hid  with  Christ  in  God.'  But  the  way 
seemed  hedged  up ;  and  she  soon  learned  that  she  could 
do  missionary  work  just  there  where  a  kind  Providence 
had  placed  her.  She  united  with  the  church,  became 
a  teacher  in  the  sabbath  school,  and  in  every  way 
possible  became  a  helper  of  those  less  fortunate  than 
herself. 

"  Thus  the  years  passed  till  she  was  eighteen  years  of 
age.  Like  '  Jane  Eyre '  by  Miss  Bronte,  she  had  long 
sighed  for  a  '  change  of  servitude'  if  nothing  more. 
When  her  eighteenth  birthday  came,  she  said  to  her 
mother,  pointing  to  the  large  stone  mill,  *  That  is  a 
very  large  building,  but  not  large  enough  to  hold  me 
any  longer/ 

"  Accordingly  she  went  before  the  examining  com- 
mittee, readily  procured  the  required  certificate,  applied 
for  the  school  in  her  own  district,  obtained  it,  and  went 
to  her  work  of  teaching.  .  .  . 

"  The  next  summer  found  her  teaching  a  large  school 
in  Savoy.  Before  going  there  she  went  before  the 
school  board  for  the  requisite  certificate.  Upon  this 


436  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

board  was  a  young  student  of  divinity,  who  was  then 
pursuing  his  Greek  studies  with  a  distinguished  lawyer 
of  Adams.  During  the  summer  it  was  said  that  this 
clergyman  visited  the  school  rather  oftener  than  was 
necessary  for  the  duties  of  his  official  position. 

"  However  that  may  be,  two  years  later  the  papers 
chronicled  the  marriage  of  Rev.  Orren  Perkins  with 
Sarah  M.  Clinton.  The  ceremony  was  performed  by 
Rev.  E.  H.  Chapin,  who  was  then  settled  at  Charles- 
town. 

"  Their  first  home  was  in  a  quiet  parsonage  in  Ber- 
nardston,  Mass.,  in  the  beautiful  valley  of  the 
Connecticut,  in  the  midst  of  kind  friends  who  min- 
istered to  their  temporal  wants,  and  made  them  very 
happy  by  their  warm  friendship.  When  once  comfort- 
ably settled,  a  course  of  study  for  each  day  was  care- 
fully marked  out,  and  steadily  pursued  from  year  to 
year.  They  were  united  in  their  literary  tastes  and 
pursuits  ;  and  the  young  wife  received  the  most  kindly 
sympathy  and  encouragement  from  her  husband  in  her 
intellectual  researches.  At  his  suggestion  she  began 
to  write  for  the  papers  and  periodicals ;  her  articles 
were  published,  and  many  kindly  letters  were  received 
from  those  who  appreciated  those  fugitive  pieces. 

"  A  few  years  later,  when  their  home  was  in  Shirley, 
Mrs.  Perkins  wrote  her  first  book.  It  was  a  little  sab- 
bath-school volume  published  by  the  Congregational 
House  in  Boston,  entitled  '  Clouds  and  Sunbeams.' 

"  The  book  came  out  during  the  holidays,  the  same 
week  of  the  birth  of  the  second  child.  The  father 
brought  the  book  into  the  nursery,  laid  it  beside  the 
little  bundle  of  flannel  upon  the  pillow,  and  exclaimed, 
'  Rather  smart  woman  to  give  the  world  a  book  and  a 
baby  during  the  same  week  I ' 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  437 

"  Several  other  books  were  written  in  the  following 
years ;  one  of  them,  '  Alice  and  her  Friends,'  receiving 
a  prize  offered  by  a  Boston  publishing  company. 

"  Next  their  home  was  in  Winchester,  N.H.,  where 
they  remained  twelve  years.  In  addition  to  his  labors 
as  a  clergyman,  Mr.  Perkins  served  three  years  in  the 
State  Legislature,  and  two  years  in  the  Senate.  Mrs. 
Perkins  accompanied  him  each  year  to  Concord,  and 
saw  much  to  interest  her  during  these  visits.  She  lis- 
tened to  stirring  debates  in  the  State  House,  heard  elo- 
quent sermons  from  the  pulpits,  and  attended  brilliant 
parties  given  by  the  first  families  of  the  city.  She  here 
formed  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Nathaniel 
White,  whom  she  is  still  proud  to  number  among  her 
personal  friends." 

Mrs.  ARMENIA  WHITE  is  a  woman  of  the  century 
who  could  have  been  honorably  mentioned  among  the 
women  philanthropists  or  reformers,  or  women  of  the 
civil  war.  She  has  labored  faithfully  in  every  reform. 
She  has  spoken  in  and  presided  over  public  meetings 
in  the  interests  of  temperance  and  woman  suffrage,  and 
has  used  the  wealth  God  has  given  her  for  his  cause  in 
every  possible  way.  The  writer  of  this  book  can  use 
the  apostle's  words,  "  She  hath  been  a  succorer  of  many 
and  of  myself  also."  She  has  been  nobly  seconded  in 
all  her  efforts  by  a  benevolent  and  generous  husband. 

To  return  to  Mrs.  Perkins :  "  The  failure  of  Mr. 
Perkins's  health  induced  them  to  dispose  of  their  home 
in  .New  Hampshire  ;  and  they  gave  an  entire  winter  to 
rest  among  friends  at  Cooperstown,  N.Y. 

"  The  next  spring  they  took  charge  of  the  Coopers- 
town  Seminary,  and  remained  there  till  the  school  was 
sold,  two  years  later.  These  years  passed  very  plea- 
santly; Mrs.  Perkins  teaching  the  advanced  English 


438  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTUKY. 

classes,  and  heartily  enjoying  the  society  of  the  young 
gentlemen  and  lady  pupils.  A  family  of  more  than  one 
hundred  was  under  her  supervision  ;  and  in  addition  to 
this  she  took  home  four  little  motherless  children  with- 
out compensation,  and  provided  for  them  till  good  places 
were  secured  in  other  homes.  No  student  who  applied 
for  admission  was  ever  sent  away  for  lack  of  money. 
A  little  work  would  be  given  them,  —  sewing  for  the 
girls ;  the  ringing  of  the  bell,  and  preparing  the  fuel,  by 
the  boys. 

"  A  story  is  told  of  one  boy  who  walked  nine  miles, 
and  came  to  the  seminary,  and  asked  to  see  the  prin- 
cipal. 

" '  Mr.  Perkins,'  said  he  a  little  bashfully,  '  I  have  no 
money,  but  I  want  to  go  to  school.  Can  you  give  me 
some  work,  and  let  me  study  ? ' 

"  '  Have  you  ever  worked  out  ? ' 

"  '  Yes  ;  I  was  hired  to  Mr.  Jarvis  last  summer.' 

"  *  Did  you  bring  a  recommendation  from  him  ?  ' 

"  '  No,  sir ;  but  I  can  tell  you  what  he  said  of  me. 
He  said  that  I  was  not  worth  a  penny  for  work,  but  was 
good  at  a  look.1 

Mr.  Perkins  smiled  at  this,  and  went  and  consulted 
his  wife. 

"  *  Take  him,'  she  replied.  4  There  is  truth  in  the 
boy  to  tell  that  about  himself.' 

"  He  was  admitted  to  the  school,  became  a  diligent 
student,  and  was  so  much  attached  to  the  family  that 
he  remained  with  them  more  than  a  year  after  they 
left  the  seminary,  always  serving  them  faithfully ;  and 
he  continued  his  studies,  with  Mrs.  Perkins  for  his 
teacher.  That  lad  is  now  a  medical  student,  and  is  a 
good  and  useful  man.  Many  other  students  will  always 
gratefully  remember  this  seminary,  for  the  aid  they 
there  received  in  obtaining  a  higher  education. 


WOMEN   PREACHEKS.  439 

"  Four  years  ago  Mrs.  Perkins  went  upon  the  plat- 
form as  a  lecturer.  Her  first  lecture  was  given  at  Mrs. 
Hanaford's  church  in  New  Haven,  Conn.,  and  received 
the  approbation  of  that  lady,  and  of  the  people  to 
whom  she  ministered  in  spiritual  things.  The  next 
year,  following  the  inward  promptings  of  the  Spirit, 
encouraged  also  by  her  best  friends,  she  occasionally 
entered  the  pulpit  as  a  Christian  teacher.  The  same 
Master  who  told  Mary  to  go  and  tell  that  he  had  risen 
has  blessed  her  work ;  and  with  this  approval  she  is 
satisfied. 

"  The  name  of  Mrs.  Perkins  was  upon  the  first  call 
for  a  Woman's  Congress  in  1873.  Her  paper  upon  the 
'  Higher  Education  of  Woman  '  was  very  well  received, 
and  was  published  with  the  other  papers  in  a  pamphlet 
form.  In  1875,  at  Syracuse,  she  read  a  paper  upon  the 
'  Uses  of  Money,'  which  elicited  much  applause  for  its 
terse  sentences,  and  bold  original  thought.  In  that 
paper  was  an  earnest  plea  for  the  education  of  poor 
girls  who  are  bright  and  ambitious,  but  who  cannot 
pay  their  expenses  at  any  school. 

"  She  is  a  real  friend  to  such  girls,  many  of  whom 
she  has  assisted  to  gain  the  knowledge  which  is  power, 
and  the  higher  knowledge  that  endureth  to  eternal  life. 
She  is  still  a  student,  every  day  reading  French  and 
German  and  the  best  English  authors,  and  every  day 
endeavoring  to  discharge  properly  her  whole  duty  in 
the  position  where  she  is  placed  by  an  overruling  Prov- 
idence. Among  the  lowly  ones  does  she  especially 
love  to  labor.  In  mission  sabbath  schools,  in  unpopular 
temperance  work,  in  prison  reform,  she  is  ever  ready 
with  voice  and  pen  and  purse  ;  and,  with  a  heart  full 
of  love  and  faith  and  peace,  she  toils  on,  remember- 
ing the  words  of  the  Great  Teacher,  — 


440  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

" '  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  the  least  of 
these,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me.'  " 

"JENNIE  FOWLEB  WILLING  was  born  in  Burford, 
Canada  West,  Jan.  22,  1834.  Removed  with  her 
father's  family  to  Illinois  in  1842.  Owing  to  ill  health 
she  was  in  the  main  self-educated.  She  became  the 
wife  of  a  Methodist  minister,  Rev.  W.  C.  Willing,  in 
1853.  She  began  writing  for  the  press  in  her  early 
girlhood  ;  and  in  1862  she  decided  to  make  literature  a 
profession.  She  carried  out  this  purpose  to  the  best 
of  her  ability,  burdened  as  she  was  with  domestic  and 
churchly  cares,  receiving  in  1867  the  honorary  degree 
of  M.  E.  L.  from  Jennings  Seminary,  Aurora,  111.,  and 
in  1871  that  of  A.  M.  from  the  Evanston  College  for 
Ladies.  In  1873  she  was  elected  Professor  of  English 
Language  and  Literature  in  the  Illinois  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity of  Bloomington  —  an  institution  of  first  grade. 
In  1874  she  was  nominated  by  a  very  respectable  con- 
vention of  Prohibitionists,  Superintendent  of  Public 
Instruction  for  the  State.  She  declined  the  nomination, 
however,  as  the  position  she  occupied  was  much  more 
to  her  mind. 

"  She  writes  for  many  of  the  leading  periodicals  East 
and  West.  She  has  written  one  book  of  religious  fic- 
tion, that  received  many  kind  notices  from  the  press, 
and  a  serial  that  was  published  in  a  New  York  paper. 
In  1875  she  was  elected  editor  of  the  '  Woman's  Tem- 
perance Union,'  published  by  the  National  Christian 
Woman  Temperance  Union  as  its  organ. 

"  She  presided  in  the  preliminary  meeting  held  at 
Chautauqua  Lake  S.S.  Assembly  in  1874,  in  which  the 
first  arrangements  were  made  for  calling  a  convention 
to  organize  the  N.  C.  W.  T.  U. ;  issued  the  call  for 


JENNIE   F.    WILLING. 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  443 

the  Cleveland  Convention,  and  presided  over  it  in  No- 
vember of  the  same  year.  She  is  also  president  of  the 
South  Side  Temperance  Union,  Chicago,  and  of  the 
Illinois  State  Temperance  Union. 

"  Largely  through  her  influence,  the  Woman's  Edu- 
cational Association  of  Bloomington  was  organized,  and 
has  provided  a  home  where  cheap  board  is  given  young 
ladies  who  are  struggling  to  secure  higher  education. 

"  In  1869  she  was  elected  one  of  the  corresponding 
secretaries  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  which  position  she 
has  filled  ever  since,  having  care  of  the  four  States  lying 
about  Chicago.  In  1873  she  was  licensed  as  a  local 
preacher  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  is 
usually  occupied  upon  sabbaths,  preaching  in  the  pul- 
pits in  and  near  Chicago. 

"  She  has  delivered  sermons  and  anniversary  ad- 
dresses in  most  of  the  principal  pulpits  of  her  denomi- 
nation in  all  the  large  cities  East  and  West." 

A.  M.  O'DANIELS  was  born  in  Hubbardston,  Mass., 
March  14,  1828.  She  was  of  long-lived  ancestry  on 
her  father's  side ;  but  her  mother  died  at  the  age  of 
forty-three,  of  consumption.  At  that  time  she  went  to 
live  with  an  aunt  in  Westminster,  Mass.  Of  this 
period,  when  she  was  ten  years  old,  she  says :  — 

"We  lived  on  a  farm  in  a  retired  way,  so  that  I 
seldom  saw  any  one  but  the  family  except  on  Sunday, 
and  during  the  session  of  the  district  school,  which  was 
then  held  but  two  terms  of  nine  weeks  each,  in  the 
year. 

"  Having  no  one  of  my  own  age  to  talk  with,  or  who 
sympathized  with  me,  I  learned  to  like  solitude  and  to 


444  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

give  myself  up  to  wild  fancies.  My  time  was  spent  in 
assisting  about  the  housework,  and  braiding  palm-leaf 
hats ;  and,  as  the  latter  required  but  little  thought,  I 
would  let  my  mind  go  roaming  in  the  fields  of  imagina- 
tion while  my  fingers  were  employed.  I  had  a  most 
intense  longing  for  my  mother's  presence,  that  I  could 
make  known  my  thoughts  to  her,  and  receive  her  coun- 
sel and  sympathy.  I  early  learned  to  feel  that  her 
spirit  was  often  with  me,  and  that  she  would  watch 
over  and  protect,  as  much  as  possible,  her  children  left 
on  earth. 

"  My  life  was  passed  in  this  uneventful  way  till  I  was 
eighteen,  at  which  time  I  was  entitled  to  my  own  earn- 
ings, and  could  be  my  own  mistress.  Wishing  to  get 
an  education  better  than  the  common  school  had  af- 
forded me  (I  had  attended  at  the  academy  one  term 
only),  I  began  to  devise  ways  by  which  I  could  do 
it.  Working  out,  doing  housework  at  one  dollar  and 
sometimes  a  dollar  and  a  half  per  week,  I  earned  suffi- 
cient to  provide  myself  with  clothes,  and  then  worked 
for  my  board  three  terms  in  the  family  of  Mr.  Hudson, 
and  one  term  boarded  at  home,  while  I  attended  the 
academy.  I  taught  school  the  summer  I  was  seven- 
teen, and  again  when  nineteen.  Afterwards,  thinking 
I  should  attain  my  object  sooner  because  I  could  earn 
money  faster,  I  went  into  a  factory,  where  I  remained 
eight  or  nine  months.  At  twenty-two  I  had  saved 
forty-two  dollars,  and,  with  a  cousin,  started  to  board 
ourselves  at  Westfield  Normal  School.  I  remained 
two  terms  at  that  time,  not  returning  home  during 
the  summer  vacation,  because  I  could  not  afford  the 
expense,  but  spent  it  with  a  friend,  working  for  my 
board.  The  terms  were  then  fourteen  weeks  in  length. 
I  returned  to  Westminster  at  the  end  of  the  second 


WOMEN   PREACHERS.  445 

term,  with  two  dollars  left,  after  paying  all  my  ex- 
penses and  providing  necessary  clothing.  Our  board, 
room-rent,  fuel,  and  lights  for  those  two  terms,  cost  us 
just  forty-seven  cents  per  week  each,  for  my  cousin 
and  myself. 

**  In  the  winter  and  following  summer  I  taught  school 
in  Westminster,  and  returned  to  Westfield  again  in  the 
fall  to  complete  the  required  three  terms  of  the  course, 
which  was  then  the  rule.  Before  the  close  of  that 
term,  application  was  made  for  a  teacher  to  go  to 
Gloucester.  I  went  in  obedience  to  the  call,  and  re- 
mained till  a  year  from  the  following  spring,  when, 
wishing  to  pursue  my  studies  still  further,  I  'returned 
again  to  Westfield,  and  remained  nearly  two  terms 
more,  and  afterwards  taught  two  terms  in  the  model 
school  connected  with  the  normal,  being  principal  of 
that  department. 

"  The  winter  of  1853  and  1854  I  taught  in  Hopkinton, 
and  the  following  summer  in  Westminster.  I  taught 
also  in  Mitteneaque,  and  six  terms  in  Westminster  at 
different  times.  During  that  summer  I  resolved  to 
enter  Antioch  College  at  Yellow  Springs,  O.,  and 
spent  the  winter  in  a  factory  at  Lawrence  to  get  the 
means.  Before  spring  I  received  an  application  to  go 
as  teacher  to  the  House  of  Refuge,  Cincinnati.  I  went 
in  March,  1855,  remained  till  the  opening  of  the  school 
year  at  Antioch  in  1856,  when  I  entered  that  institu- 
tion, and  took  an  elective  course,  being  a  member  of  all 
the  four  college  classes,  and  the  two  higher  preparatory 
during  the  year,  as  I  took  studies  that  led  me  into 
those  classes. 

"  I  may  here  mention  that  soon  after  entering  the 
school,  I  joined  the  Alethezeteon  Society,  which  was 
one  of  four  different  literary  societies  connected  with 


446  WOMEN  OF   THE   CENTUKY. 

the  school.  This  one  was  composed  entirely  of  ladies. 
The  others  were  either  of  gentlemen  or  both  sexes  com- 
bined, although  the  two  sexes  did  not  ordinarily  hold 
meetings  together.  A  short  time  before  the  close  of 
my  third  term,  the  Star  and  Crescent,  which  contained 
both  sexes,  held  a  public  meeting  in  the  chapel.  The 
Adelphian,  which  was  a  gentleman's  society,  also  held 
one ;  and  we  thought  our  society  (which  contained 
some  scholars  as  good  as  any  to  be  found  in  the  school, 
among  them  a  niece  of  Pres.  Mann),  were  entitled 
to  the  use  of  the  chapel  for  a  public  meeting,  and  ac- 
cordingly began  to  make  preparations  for  holding  it, 
and  then  sent  a  request  to  the  faculty  for  permission ; 
when,  to  our  surprise,  we  were  refused,  and  wholly  on 
the  ground  that  we  were  women,  and  had  no  gentlemen 
connected  with  us  to  go  with  us  upon  the  platform. 
This  seemed  so  weak  and  puerile,  as  they  assigned  no 
other  motive  for  their  refusal,  that  we  naturally  felt 
somewhat  indignant,  and  felt  that  the  sympathies  of 
most  of  the  school,  as  well  as  the  people  of  the  village, 
were  with  us.  We  met,  drew  up  a  series  of  resolutions 
condemning  the  course  of  the  faculty,  and  setting  forth 
our  claims,  which  we  sent  to  them,  then  disbanded ; 
and  two  of  us,  a  Mrs.  Gushing  and  myself,  left  the 
school  two  weeks  before  the  close  of  the  term.  We 
remained  in  the  place,  however;  and,  as  Dr.  Bellows 
had  previously  been  invited  to  give  an  address  before 
all  the  literary  societies  the  day  before  commencement, 
we  attended  that  meeting  in  a  body,  all  of  us  except 
the  president's  niece,  numbering  seventeen,  dressed  in 
black,  in  mourning  that  prejudice  was  still  so  strong  as 
to  deny  what  seemed  so  reasonable  and  just  a  demand. 
"  Prolonged  applause  greeted  our  entrance  into  the 
crowded  chapel,  as  the  idea  was  caught  by  those  who 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  447 

saw  us  pass  to  the  seats  which  had  been  held  in  reserve. 
This  was  welcomed  as  a  token  of  sympathy  with  the 
idea  which  we  represented. 

"This  occurred  in  July,  1857.  The  next  day  I  left 
Yellow  Springs,  to  take  charge  of  a  school  in  Sylvania, 
in  the  northern  part  of  Ohio.  I  remained  there  three 
months,  when  I  returned  to  Westminster,  Mass.,  where 
I  was  married,  Nov.  26,  1857,  to  De  Witt  Clinton 
O 'Daniels,  who  was  then  preaching  for  the  Unitarian 
society  in  Athol,  Mass.,  in  which  place  we  remained  till 
a  year  from  the  following  spring." 

Four  boys  were  born  to  them,  making  glad  a  home 
that  was  continually  changed  as  the  father's  health 
failed,  and  he  was  obliged  to  alternate  between  can- 
vassing and  preaching.  He  died  on  the  5th  February, 
1867  ;  and  the  bereaved  mother  set  about  the  work  of 
supporting  the  children,  with  a  trusting  and  brave 
spirit.  Having  made  arrangements  for  her  children's 
comfort  in  good  homes  with  kind  friends,  she  took  up 
the  business  of  canvassing  for  books,  to  support  them. 
She  writes  of  this  period  to  the  author  of  this  book :  — 

"  In  obtaining  my  orders  I  walked  all  the  time,  often 
ten  miles  per  day ;  and  when  the  days  were  very  warm, 
and  the  ground  dry  and  parched,  as  was  sometimes  the 
case,  my  feet  were  blistered  when  night  came. 

"I  usually  had  some  stopping-place  fcr  the  night 
with  some  friend  or  old  acquaintance ;  but  ifc  sometimes 
happened  that  I  could  not  return  at  night  to  the  place 
from  which  I  started  in  the  morning ;  and  several  times 
I  would  start  Monday  morning,  not  to  return  till  Satur- 
day night,  with  my  satchel  and  book,  and  would  find  a 
night's  lodging  among  strangers  wherever  darkness 
overtook  me. 


448  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

"  At  such  times  I  would  look  almost  with  envy  upon 
the  dogs  in  the  street,  that  knew  where  they  could  lay 
their  heads  to  rest,  while  I  did  not. 

"  Yet  here  let  me  say,  that  though  the  world  is  called 
cold  and  heartless,  I  have  found,  as  I  have  thus  gone 
from  house  to  house,  among  entire  strangers,  more  kind 
treatment  and  heartfelt  sympathy  then  I  had  expected, 
— enough  to  strengthen  my  faith  in  the  native  goodness 
of  the  human  heart,  and  to  teach-  me  there  is  some  of 
the  divine  nature  in  every  human  soul. 

"  Often,  instead  of  being  obliged  to  ask  for  a  night's 
lodging,  it  has  been  proffered  by  those  who  were  en- 
tire strangers ;  and  more  frequently  I  was  asked  to  par- 
take with  the  family  when  I  called  at  meal-time.  The 
cordiality  that  was  so  frequently  manifested,  and  the 
pleasant  chats  I  often  had  with  many  whom  I  met,  gave 
me  many  a  heart-thrill  of  joy,  and  did  much  to  lighten 
my  somewhat  weary  pilgrimage.  I  feel  that  I  owe 
a  debt  of  gratitude  to  very  many  whose  faces  I  may 
never  meet  again  on  earth ;  and  the  only  way  I  can 
repay  it  is  by  passing  their  gifts  of  kind  words  and 
pleasant  deeds  to  those  whom  I  may  meet  that  stand 
in  need  of  sympathy  and  such  help  as  I  am  able  to 
give.  So  many  kind  words  and  tokens  of  remem- 
brance or  thoughtful  kindness  have  come  to  me,  even 
from  those  I  have  never  met,  but  who  have  chanced  to 
learn  my  needs,  that  I  feel  I  owe  the  world  a  debt  that 
calls  for  the  best  efforts  I  am  able  to  put  forth  in  help- 
ing the  unfortunate,  strengthening  the  weak,  giving 
courage  to  the  faint-hearted,  or  whispering  hope  to  the 
doubting  soul.  Linked  together  as  we  all  are  by  the 
common  tie  of  brotherhood,  children  of  one  common 
Father  who  is  continually  casting  his  gifts  upon  us 
with  an  unsparing  hand,  if  we  cannot  show  our  grati- 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  449 

tilde  directly  to  those  through  whom  his  gifts  come  to 
us,  we  can  by  bestowing  all  we  are  able  to  give  upon 
those  who  stand  in  need  of  our  help.  Sometimes  I 
think  we  are  so  placed  that  we  seem  compelled  to  re- 
ceive benefactions  from  sources  that  we  cannot  reach  to 
repay  them  there,  that  we  may  feel  so  strongly  our 
indebtedness  to  some  one  that  we  shall  be  compelled  by 
force  of  circumstances  to  pass  the  gift  along  to  some 
one  else,  in  order  that  we  may  realize  more  fully  that 
we  are  brothers  and  sisters,  and  heirs  together  of  the 
same  great  inheritance. 

"  But  I  am  wandering  in  thought  away  from  the 
facts  I  have  undertaken  to  relate. 

"  I  remained  in  New  York  till  late  in  October,  before 
returning  to  my  family  that  I  had  left  in  Westminster. 
None  but  those  who  have  been  called  to  endure  a  like 
separation  can  tell  with  what  joy  I  once  more  greeted 
them,  and  found  they  had  been  kept  and  watched  over 
by  loving  friends  during  my  absence ;  for  the  friends 
with  whom  my  boys  were  left  not  only  took  them  to 
their  homes,  but  to  their  hearts  also,  as,  in  the  case 
of  each,  a  mother's  place  had  been  well  and  faithfully 
supplied. 

"  After  canvassing  a  few  weeks  more  near  home,  I 
sent  to  New  York  for  my  goods,  and  commenced  house- 
keeping again  with  my  children  on  the  30th  of  Decem- 
ber. I  kept  them  with  me  the  remainder  of  the  winter ; 
but,  when  warm  weather  again  returned,  they  each  went 
to  the  places  they  had  lived  at  the  previous  summer, 
while  I  again  went  canvassing ;  but  this  time  I  kept 
my  home,  and  returned  to  it  every  two  or  three  weeks 
through  the  season,  not  at  any  time  going  more  than 
twenty  miles  away. 

"  During  this  season,  besides  the  books  I  sold,  I 


450  WOMEN   OP  THE   CENTUEY. 

obtained  subscribers  enough  to  *  The  Independent '  to 
get  me  a  sewing-machine,  with  the  help  of  which  I 
have  been  able  to  do  much  toward  my  family's  support. 
I  went  out  canvassing,  however,  for  a  few  weeks  the 
third  summer,  but  soon  gave  it  up,  and  took  up  sewing, 
which  I  have  continued  more  or  less  ever  since. 

"  During  the  fourth  year  and  fifth  summer  my  eldest 
boy  was  away  from  home  all  the  time  on  a  farm ;  and 
as  the  two  younger  boys  went  to  school,  and  I  sat 
alone  day  after  day  employed  with  my  needle,  I  felt 
that  I  was  not  doing  enough.  Something  was  continu- 
ally whispering,  I  ought  to  do  more  than  this;  and 
yet  I  could  see  no  way  open  in  which  to  work  other 
than  the  one  I  was  then  pursuing,  because  I  felt  that  I 
wanted  to  be  with  my  family,  and  keep  them  together 
as  much  as  I  could.  During  this  period  in  May,  1871, 
I  was  employed  by  the  Universalist  Publishing  House 
to  travel  for  them  for  four  weeks,  trying  to  enlarge  the 
subscription-list  of  4  The  Myrtle '  when  it  was  made 
a  weekly  paper.  In  the  course  of  those  four  weeks  I 
visited  fifty-four  different  places,  comprising  the  larger 
towns  and  cities  in  all  the  New  England  States  except 
Vermont,  and  called  upon  the  pastor  of  the  society  in 
those  places,  or  the  one  most  interested  in  the  Sunday 
school,  to  urge  the  claims  of  *  The  Myrtle.'  It  was,  you 
recollect,  while  employed  in  this  capacity,  that  I  was 
sent  to  New  Haven,  and  called  upon  you  ;  and,  though 
your  personal  acquaintance  with  me  was  slight,  yet 
you  began  to  urge  me  to  take  up  the  ministry  for  my 
calling.  The  night  previous  I  had  passed  with  my  old 
schoolmate  at  Antioch,  Olympia  Brown,  and  she  had 
urged  me  to  take  up  this  work  with  every  argument1 
she  could  bring  forward ;  and  when  you,  without  know- 
ing what  she  had  said,  and  knowing  me  so  little,  again 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  451 

urged  me  to  it,  and  as  I  left  took  my  hand  at  parting, 
and  thrice  repeated  'preach'  to  me,  I  could  not  help 
thinking,  «  Can  I  do  it  ?  Am  I  fitted  for  it  ?  Is  it 
my  duty  ?  Is  that  the  way  God  calls  me  to  work  ?  ' 

"The  thought  continually  recurred  to  me,  and  so 
filled  my  mind  as  to  keep  me  awake,  and  led  me  to 
arise  early  the  Sunday  morning  following,  and  pen 
some  reasons  why  I  ought  to  take  up  the  ministry. 

"  After  closing  my  labors  for  the  publishing  house,  I 
returned  home  early  in  June  with  this  thought  waiting 
for  an  answer.  I  consulted  with  the  minister  filling  the 
Universalist  pulpit,  asking  his  opinion,  I  felt  so  distrust- 
ful of  my  ability  to  perform  the  work.  He  assured  me 
I  need  not  doubt  that,  and  I  set  myself  about  the  task 
of  writing  a  sermon  ;  but,  seeing  no  opening  to  use  it, 
did  not  finish  it  till  the  following  winter,  when  I  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  Brother  Closson,  then  preaching  in 
Gardner,  asking  me  to  fill  his  pulpit  for  a  Sunday, 
either  by  readin*  a  sermon,  or  with  one  of  my  own ; 
adding  I  was  able  to  write  one  if  inclined.  This,  then, 
is  the  opening,  I  thought,  by  which  I  am  to  enter  the 
field.  I  finished  the  sermon  I  had  commenced,  wrote 
another,  and  preached  them  on  Sunday,  Jan.  28,  1872. 
This  effort  producing  a  favorable  impression,  Brother 
Closson  wrote  me,  that,  now  I  had  put  my  hand  to  the 
plough,  I  must  not  look  back,  and  asked  me  to  supply 
again  for  him,  which  I  did  March  17. 

"  The  next  summer  I  preached  in  West  Acton  and 
Waterbury,  Conn.,  three  times,  and  Richmond,  N.H. ; 
in  the  winter  at  South  Acton  and  Marlboro'  twice ;  and 
in  the  spring  of  1873  at  South  Ashburnham  once  a  fort- 
night for  three  months.  I  obtained  a  license  in  October 
of  1872,  at  the  meeting  of  the  State  Convention  in  South 
Adams.  Since  then  I  have  been  at  South  Orange  three 


152  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

times,  at  Fitchburg  three,  at  Provincetown,  South  Ver- 
non,  Vt.,  and  Westfield,  Mass. ;  and  the  first  day  of  last 
August,  one  year  ago,  I  occupied  the  Unitarian  pulpit 
in  Athol,  to  which  place  I  had  removed  in  May  previ- 
ous. It  was  the  desk  my  husband  filled  at  the  time 
of  our  marriage,  and  from  it  he  had  preached  a  sermon 
just  seventeen  years  previous,  from  the  same  text 
which  I  chose  for  that  day's  thought. 

"  Though  I  have  been  in  the  pulpit  but  twice  since 
then,  I  still  think  the  way  will  open  for  me  to  occupy 
it  more  constantly.  Certain  I  am,  if  that  is  the  course 
marked  out  for  me,  it  will :  if  not,  then  I  shall  content 
myself  in  doing  what  my  hands  find  to  do ;  and  thus 
far,  I  have  not  lacked  employment. 

"It  is  necessary  for  me  to  do  something  to  help  sup- 
port my  family  ;  and  I  have  been  ready  to  do  any  thing 
that  came  to  hand,  that  I  was  able  to  do,  —  have  taken 
in  washing,  sewing,  taught  school,  and  during  the 
month  of  June  I  was  at  the  House  of  Correction  on  the 
State  Farm  at  Oak  Lawn,  R.I.,  taking  the  place  of  a 
friend  who  was  absent  on  a  vacation. 

"  In  the  spring  of  1872  1  was  chosen  a  member  of 
the  School  Committee  of  Westminster  for  three  years  ; 
but  after  serving  one  year,  there  were  several  reasons 
why  I  thought  it  best  to  resign.  I  acted  as  secretary 
during  that  year,  and  wrote  the  report. 

"  Here  let  me  say,  in  refutation  of  Dr.  Clarke's  theory, 
that  there  were  two  young  men  on  the  board  with  me ; 
and,  during  the  days  when  our  work  was  the  same, 
they  would  manifest  fatigue  much  sooner  than  I  did. 
I  walked  more  in  visiting  schools,  and  did  not  succumb 
to  stormy  weather  so  soon  as  they  did. 

"  While  I  was  in  the  business  of  canvassing,  too,  1 
continued  to  walk  day  after  day,  for  months,  at  the 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  453 

rate  of  eight  or  ten  miles  each  day,  witL  out  apparent 
injury  to  health, — during  the  first  year  working  as 
steadily,  and  walking  as  many  miles,  as  any  man  I  have 
known  engaged  in  the  business ;  as  those  at  whose 
houses  I  stopped,  and  who  were  well  aware  of  my 
rambles,  will  bear  me  witness.  The  second  summer, 
my  strength  seemed  to  fail ;  but,  during  the  days  I  spent 
at  home,  I  was  busy  caring  for  my  family,  instead  of 
resting  as  a  man  would,  which  may  have  been  the 
reason. 

"  While  canvassing,  I  received  the  same  compensa- 
tion that  a  man  would ;  but  I  have  performed  many 
kinds  of  labor  where  I  was  not  paid  more  than  two- 
thirds  as  much,  and  sometimes  not  half. 

"  Had  I  spent  my  whole  time  in  canvassing,  I  might 
possibly  have  supported  my  family  wholly  in  that  way ; 
but  I  felt  that  it  was  necessary  that  they  should  be 
together  as  much  as  possible  ;  and  I  have  been  assisted 
in  their  support  by  receiving  aid  from  the  Hanson  Fund 
every  year  but  the  second  since  my  husband  passed 
away.  That  year,  the  one  after  I  made  my  home  in 
Westminster,  I  did  not  apply'for  it,  and  hoped  I  might 
be  able  to  sustain  myself  without  it,  but  found  I  could 
not,  and  keep  my  family  together.  Friends  were  very 
kind,  and  helped  so  much  that  I  did  not  lack  for  the 
necessaries  of  life  ;  and  at  one  of  the  meetings  held  in 
Boston  by  the  ladies,  to  devise  methods  by  which  to 
raise  the  Murray  Fund  during  the  year  1870,  a  subscrip- 
tion was  taken  up  in  my  behalf  by  kind  and  thoughtful 
friends,  —  prominent  among  them,  Mrs.  F.  J.  M.  WHIT- 
COMB,  M.D.,  one  who  lets  not  her  right  hand  know 
what  her  left  doeth,  and  who  seems  never  tiring  in  her 
efforts  to  bless  humanity.  Others  gave  too,  whose 
names  are  held  in  grateful  remembrance ;  and  many 


454  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

whose  names  I  have  never  known  lent  their  aid  in  fill- 
ing the  purse  which  came  so  unexpectedly  and  yet  so 
opportunely  to  gladden  my  heart,  and  set  my  mind  at 
rest  in  regard  to  the  problem,  '  Wherewithal  shall  my 
children  be  fed  and  clothed  ? ' 

"  Once  since  then,  two  years  ag»,  have  the  ladies  of 
the  Centenary  Aid  Association  come  to  my  aid. 
Through  their  kind  assistance,  and  the  thoughtful  help 
of  many  friends,  my  path  has  been  strewn  with  bless- 
ings, and  we  have  never  lacked  the  ordinary  comforts 
of  life." 

Mrs.  O'Daniels  received  a  license  to  preach  from  the 
Massachusetts  State  Convention  of  Universalists,  in 
October,  1872.  She  is  an  acceptable  speaker;  and,  it 
is  hoped,  will  be  ordained,  and  permanently  engaged 
in  the  glorious  work  of  preaching  the  everlasting  gos- 
pel. 

The  following  paragraph  from  a  Western  paper  men- 
tions another  woman  of  the  century,  who  preaches :  — 

"  Elgin  Association  have  replied  to  a  recent  appli- 
cation from  Miss  E.  E.  NEWMAN  for  approbation  to 
preach,  by  the  following  commendation  :  — 

"  '  Without  in  any  way  indorsing  the  idea  of  women 
becoming  pastors,  in  the  usual  sense  of  that  term,  yet, 
from"  what  we  know  of  Miss  Newman's  qualifications, 
we  do,  as  an  association,  commend  her  to  those  desir- 
ing such  help  as  she  can  give ;  and,  in  Paul's  words 
concerning  Phebe  of  Cenchrea,  commend  Miss  E.  E. 
Newman,  as  a  servant  of  the  Church,  to  the  confidence 
of  the  churches,  as  one  fitted  to  preach  Christ.'  " 


WOMEN   PREACHERS.  455 

A  New  York  paper  thus  refers  to  another  womau- 
preacher  among  the  Methodists  :  — 

"Port  Jervis,  Nov.  22. —  Mrs.  LOWRIE,  a  converted 
actress,  is  conducting  a  series  of  revival  meetings  in 
the  Drew  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  this  village. 
The  meetings  are  attended  by  thousands  of  people,  and 
over  five  hundred  converts  have  been  made.  The 
number  includes  many  wealthy  and  prominent  residents. 
Mrs.  Lowrie  is  an  eloquent  speaker,  and  an  excellent 
vocalist.  Her  discourses  are  delivered  while  she  walks 
about  the  house.  They  are  full  of  extravagant  and  im- 
passioned passages,  interspersed  with  weird  hymns  and 
wild  gestures.  She  wields  a  powerful  influence  over 
the  large  congregation  that  assemble  to  hear  her,  and 
her  voice  is  frequently  drowned  by  their  shouts.  Two 
avowed  infidels,  one  a  contributor  to  the  Boston '  In- 
vestigator,' are  among  her  converts.  A  leading  atheist 
asked  for  prayers  on  Saturday  night,  amid  a  scene  of 
wild  excitement.  The  church  will  not  hold  all  that 
apply  for  admittance.  People  come  twenty  miles  to 
hear  her  ;  and  so  many  train-hands  from  the  Erie  Rail- 
way attend  the  service  that  new  men  have  been  em- 
ployed to  fill  their  places. 

"  Mrs.  Lowrie  is  a  lady  about  thirty-five  years  of 
uge,  and  shows  the  effect  of  the  hard  work  she  is  doing." 

AMANDA  M.  WAY  was  born  near  Winchester,  Tnd., 
July  10,  1829.  Mrs.  Burleigh  in  speaking  of  her,1 
says  of  her,  '"  The  stanch  advocate  of  progress,  the 
friend  of  the  slave,  the  champion  of  woman's  rights, 
priestess  of  temperance,  indefatigable  worker  for  the 
Sanitary  Commission,  and  tireless  nurse  in  the  hospital, 

1  "Woman's  Journal,  vol.  i.  No.  42. 


456  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

and  on  the  field.  It  was  good  to  look  into  her  face, 
to  listen  to  the  tones  of  her  deep,  rich  voice;  for  in 
the  face  was  written  the  record  of  that  noble  life,  — 
written  as  only  deeds  can  write,  so  plainly  that  not 
even  the  most  untaught  could  fail  to  read  it  aright,  — 
while  her  voice  told  unmistakably,  not  only  of  sym- 
pathy and  tenderness,  but  of  strength  and  courage.  .  .  . 
In  the  organization  of  the  Good  Templars,  —  the  first, 
by  the  way,  that  recognized  the  equality  of  woman  in 
carrying  forward  the  great  reform,  —  she  held  one  office 
after  -another,  till  she  had  filled  all,  when  she  was 
elected  to  the  highest  office  in  the  National  Lodge,  the 
first  woman  who  ever  held  it.  ...  Her  beneficent  life 
is  the  most  eloquent  argument  in  favor  of  the  enfran- 
chisement of  woman,  her  varied  activity  and  extended 
usefulness,  the  illustration  of  woman's  sphere." 

She  is  now  a  preacher  among  the  Methodists. 

ELIZABETH  M.  POWELL  was  the  acceptable  preacher 
for  the  Free  Congregational  Society  in  Florence,  Mass., 
in  1871.  She  has  since  married,  and  is  not  now  a  pastor. 

Rev.  FANNIE  U.  ROBERTS  was  a  successful  preacher. 
The  "  Gospel  Banner  "  of  Maine  thus  refers  to  her :  — 

"  Last  week  we  mentioned  the  passing  away  of  this 
excellent  Christian  woman.  Rev.  S.  S.  Fletcher  had 
promised  that  he  would  furnish  an  account  of  the  par- 
ticulars of  her  death.  The  following  has  been  received 
from  her  sister,  which  Brother  Fletcher  desires  pub- 
lished rather  than  words  from  his  own  pen.  The  letter 
was  written  in  Winona,  Minn.,  the  place  where  Sister 
Koberts  died. 

WINONA,  Sept.  3,  1875. 
"  REV.  G.  W.  QUIXBY.     Dear  Sir,  —  My  sister,  Rev, 


WOMEN   PREACHERS.  457 

Fannie  U.  Roberts,  formerly  pastor  of  the  First  Uni- 
versalist  church,  Kittery,  Me.,  whose  ordination  ser- 
mon you  preached  Feb.  5,  18T4,  departed  this  life 
Aug.  26,  1875,  of  bronchial  consumption,  aged  forty 
one  years  and  six  months. 

"  She  preached  to  her  parish  until  she  lost  her  voice, 
then  she  had  her  pulpit  supplied  to  the  end  of  the  year. 
When  she  sent  in  her  resignation  the  society  generous- 
ly voted  not  to  accept  it,  but  gave  her  three  months 
vacation.  She  came  to  Minnesota  for  her  health,  and 
arrived  at  my  home  in  Winona,  May  15.  But  the 
climate  failed  to  benefit  her,  and  she  gradually  declined 
until  death  came  to  her  relief. 

"  She  was  born  at  South  Berwick,  Me. ;  was  the 
daughter  of  Frederick  and  Hannah  R.  Cogswell,  both 
preachers  of  the  Christian  church ;  was  married  in 
early  life,  and  was  a  devoted  wife  and  mother.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-eight  she  experienced  religion,  and 
joined  the  Congregational  church  at  Northwood,  N.H., 
where  she  then  resided,  and  was  superintendent  for 
some  time  of  the  Baptist  Sunday  school. 

"  From  a  child  she  was  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
Universalism,  and  entertained  more  or  less  of  the  Uni- 
versalist  views.  There  was  something  grand  and  noble 
in  the  idea  that  God,  in  his  infinite  goodness  and  his 
boundless  love,  was  to  raise  man  from  his  degradation, 
and  by  a  process  of  purification  elevate  him  to  be  joint 
heir  with  Christ,  and  that  this  fatherly  love  embraced 
the  whole  human  race. 

"  In  1870  she  commenced  lecturing  on  moral  and 
intellectual  subjects,  after  which  she  accepted  the  invi- 
tations extended  by  the  Kensington  and  Wells  Univer- 
salist  societies,  and  began  supplying  for  them  in  tho 
spring  of  1871,  and  continuing  unti1  she  accepted  the 


458  WOMEN  OP  THE   CENTUBY. 

call  from  Kittery,  Me.,  where  she  remained  until  April, 
1875. 

"  During  all  her  weakness  and  pain  she  was  never 
heard  to  murmur  or  complain,  but  was  always  more 
thoughtful  for  others  than  herself.  She  was  beloved  by 
every  one  that  knew  her.  She  has  left  one  son,  three 
step-daughters,  and  brothers  and  sisters,  to  mourn  their 
irreparable  loss ;  but  we  hope  for  a  bright  reunion  in  a 
fairer  world. 

"  Sister  was  well  aware  of  her  approaching  dissolu- 
tion, and  made  all  necessary  preparations ;  said  she  was 
not  afraid  to  die,  and,  if  she  could  not  get  well  so  as  to 
lead  a  life  of  usefulness,  she  would  rather  go  now  ;  said 
she  felt  her  heavenly  Father  near  her.  By  her  desire 
we  sent  for  Rev.  Mr.  Tuttle  of  Minneapolis,  to  attend 
the  funeral;  but  he  could  not  come.  Rev.  Mr.  McKin- 
ley  (Methodist)  of  Winona  preached  a  sermon  from 
2  Cor.  v.  1.  We  buried  her  remains  in  Woodlawn 
Cemetery. 

"  Sister  Fannie  wished  me  to  request  you  to  write  her 
obituary,  and  said,  *  Tell  him  I  die  in  the  faith,'  and  it 
was  what  she  had  upheld  ever  since  she  came  here.  I 
have  now  given  you  the  outlines  that  you  may  know 
the  facts,  and  to  direct  you  in  what  you  wish  to  say. 
"  Truly  yours, 

"MRS.  LIZZIE  WAITE." 

We  would  say  that  Sister  Roberts  in  mental  vigor 
and  Christian  goodness  was  no  ordinary  woman.  But 
few  clergymen  in  any  denomination  could  write  a 
better  sermon,  or  offer  a  more  effectual  impromptu 
speech ;  while  she  had  the  ability  to  win  not  only  the 
respect,  but  the  warm  friendship,  of  every  member  of 
her  parish.  Rev.  S.  S.  Fletcher  of  Yarmouth,  who 


WOMEN   PREACHERS.  459 

knew  her  well,  testifies  as  follows,  relative  to  her  abil- 
ity and  Christian  goodness :  — 

"  You  cannot  overstate  the  love  and  esteem  in  which 
our  dear  Sister  Roberts  was  held  by  all  the  societies  to 
which  she  had  ever  ministered.  She  was  eloquent  and 
instructive  as  a  preacher,  and  most  efficient  in  all  the 
pastoral  relations,  whether  in  the  Sunday  school  as 
leader  of  the  Bible  class,  at  the  bedside  of  the  sick,  or 
in  the  homes  of  the  afflicted. 

"  She  had  the  power,  as  only  few  ministers  have,  of 
attaching  her  people  to  her  by  winning  their  affection. 
She  gave  to  them  the  love  of  a  consecrated  minister, 
and  received  in  ratio  as  she  gave.  Mrs.  Roberts  never 
preached  to  any  society  whose  preference  would  not 
have  retained  her  services.  She  was  ever  modest,  and 
the  sweet  dignity  of  her  womanly  nature  shone  out  in 
all  her  acts ;  and,  whatever  may  be  said  or  thought  of  a 
woman  ministry,  with  Mrs.  Roberts  it  proved  an  entire 
success.  .  .  . 

"  My  own  heart  beats  responsive  to  the  grief  of 
those  who  knew  her  best ;  and  I  sorrow  that  we  shall 
see  her  face  and  listen  to  the  sweet  sound  of  her  voice 
no  more  on  earth." 

MEMORIAL  SERVICES. 

"BROTHER  QUINBY,  —  On  Sunday  afternoon  the 
12th  inst.,  services  were  held  at  the  Universalist  church 
in  Kittery,  in  memory  of  the  former  and  well-beloved 
pastor,  Rev.  Mrs.  F.  U.  ROBERTS. 

"  The  church  was  beautifully  decorated  with  flowers, 
and  crowded  to  its  utmost  limits.  Every  inch  of  space, 
even  to  the  steps  of  the  platform,  was  occupied  by  the 
friends  who  gathered  there  to  testify  their  love  and  re- 


460  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

spect  for  the  faithful  pastor  and  noble  woman  who  had 
labored  with  them  for  several  years,  and  until  a  few 
months  before  her  death. 

"  The  sendees,  which  were  conducted  by  Miss  CARO- 
LINE E.  ANGELL,  assisted  by  Rev.  S.  S.  Hebberd  of 
Portsmouth,  were  appropriate  and  impressive. 

"  Miss  Angell  is  a  recent  graduate  of  Canton  Theo- 
logical School,  and  for  a  few  months  past  has  occupied 
the  pulpit  rendered  vacant  by  the  illness  of  Mrs.  Rob- 
erts. Her  excellent  sermon  was  a  fitting  tribute  to  the 
departed  pastor,  whom  she  had  never  met,  but  whose 
worth  she  readily  comprehended  from  the  hearts  of  the 
people. 

"  One  of  the  most  beautiful  features  of  the  interest- 
ing service  was  that  the  memorial  tribute  to  one  who 
had  manifested  a  deep  interest  in  the  welfare  of  her  sex, 
and  honored  it  by  her  work  in  the  ministry,  should  be 
spoken  by  woman's  lips.  Nothing  could  have  been 
more  pleasing  to  the  spirit  of  our  departed  sister,  who 
has  left  warm  friends  to  treasure  a  beautiful  memory  of 
her  work  in  the  Master's  service." 

Rev.  Mrs.  Roberts  was  made  a  justice  of  the  peace 
by  the  Governor  of  Maine,  and  as  such  officiated  at  the 
marriage  of  her  son. 

Miss  Angell  has  since  been  ordained. 

MAGGIE  N.  VAN  COTT  has  achieved  a  wide  reputa- 
tion as  a  successful  preacher  among  the  Methodists. 
She  has  been  licensed,  but  not  as  yet  ordained;  but 
she  has  done  a  marvellous  work  in  winning  the  atten- 
tion of  men  and  women  to  religious  themes.  A  sketch 
of  her  life  and  labors  has  been  published  in  Cincin- 
nati,1 the  introduction  to  which  has  been  ably  written 
i  By  Hitchcock  and  Walden. 


MRS.   MAGGIE   N.   VANCOTT. 


WOMEN   PREACHERS.  463 

by  Bishop  Gilbert  Haven  and  Rev.  David  Sherman. 
The  book  is  graphic,  and  full  oi>  statements  and  inci- 
dents, interesting  especially  to  the  sect  to  which  Mrs, 
Van  Cott  belongs.  The  closing  chapter,  on  the  right 
of  women  to  preach,  is  valuable  for  all.  Mrs.  Van 
Cott  is  a  native  of  New  York  City,  born  March  25, 
1830.  Her  maiden  name  was  Newton.  She  is  of 
English  and  Scotch  descent.  Since  there  is  a  volume 
concerning  her  and  her  labors,  it  is  less  needful  that 
much  be  told  here  concerning  her.  A  New  York  illus- 
trated paper  in  1875  spoke  thus  of  her :  — 

"An  interesting  revival  is  now  in  progress  at  the 
Clinton-street  Methodist  Church,  Newark,  N.J.  It  is 
preside'd  over  by  the  Widow  Van  Cott,  whose  portrait, 
together  with  a  number  of  scenes  occurring  during  one 
of  the  meetings,  are  given  in  our  present  number. 
She  has  entered  upon  this  new  field  of  missionary 
labor  under  the  prestige  of  decided  revival  triumphs 
in  Newburg,  N.Y.,  and  elsewhere ;  and,  judging  from 
the  true  religious  zeal  manifested  by  her  in  the  conduct 
of  these  meetings,  is  destined  to  accomplish  a  great 
amount  of  good  in  the  community  at  large.  Many 
touching  incidents  are  continually  occurring,  that  tend 
to  give  a  great  and  overawing  solemnity  to  the  scene. 
Old  men  whose  locks  have  been  whitened  by  the  frosts 
of  many  winters,  as  also  the  young  man  just  starting 
upon  a  solution  of  this  great  life-problem,  the  matron 
and  the  maid,  all  join  in  one  common  supplication  for 
that  '  peace  which  passeth  all  understanding.' 

"  Our  artist  has  given  striking  illustrations  of  some 
of  the  incidents  that  occurred  during  a  recent  visit  to 
the  above-named  place  of  worship.  One  old  lady,  be- 
coming convinced  of  the  errors  of  her  sinful  ways, 


464  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUHY. 

rises  from  her  seat  in  the  body  of  the  church,  and 
approaches  the  altar,  where,  upon  her  knees,  she 
asserts  her  thorough  conversion.  Another  is  a  young 
girl,  who,  though  fully  aware  of  her  depraved  and  sin- 
ful condition,  requires  to  be  led  to  the  altar,  that  she 
may  receive  divine  pardon.  There  is  also  presented 
the  case  of  a  young  man  who  stands  upon  the  brink 
of  salvation,  'almost  persuaded,'  and  by  whose  side 
kneels  this  spirited  evangelist,  who  is  invoking  the 
divine  blessing  upon  so  worthy  a  determination.  The 
portrait  of  Mr?.  Van  Cott  exhibits  an  exceedingly 
plain  but  scrupulously  neat  woman :  a  wealth  of  shin- 
ing brown  hair,  tastefully  arranged  in  wavy  crimps  of 
the  old-time  style,  over  her  temples,  gives  a  highly 
spiritual  cast  to  her  features.  Her  voice  is  p6werful 
and  firm,  kept  well  under  control ;  and,  when  she  rises 
in  the  pulpit  to  deliver  the  opening  exhortation,  the 
influence  exerted  over  the  crowded  audience  is  simply 
wonderful.  Her  views  upon  religious  subjects  are 
broad  and  expansive,  and  she  possesses  a  well-defined 
sense  of  human  obligation.  So  straightforward,  plain, 
but  forcible,  are  her  arguments  in  support  of  the  '  new 
life,'  that  even  the  most  case-hardened  sinner  is  forced 
to  admit  the  truthfulness  of  her  tenets.  Undoubtedly 
her  power  for  the  accomplishment  of  much  good  lies  in 
her  magnetism,  and  the  speedy  establishment  of  a  sym- 
pathetic current  between  herself  and  the  worshippers. 
The  meetings  over  which  she  presides — and  is  of  a 
consequence  the  central  point  of  attraction  —  are  char- 
acterized by  a  deep  religious  feeling,  a  quiet  but  per- 
sistent searching  after  hidden  truths ;  and  numerous 
are  the  self-confessed  transgressors  of  the  moral  laws, 
who  have  espoused  the  cause  of  the  '  meek  and  lowly 
Nazarene,'  and  been  divested  of  the  robes  of  dark 
ness  and  sin,  under  her  exhortations. 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  465 

"  She  was,  until  late  years,  herself  a  weak  and  sinful 
woman :  consequently  she  has  a  full  appreciation  of  the 
many  difficulties  which  sinners  must  experience  in  theii 
attempts  to  get  out  ,of  the  old  ruts.  After  the  death 
of  her  husband,  who  was  a  prominent  merchant  in 
New  York,  she  for  a  time  conducted  his  business,  and 
exhibited  considerable  executive  ability.  To  use  her 
own  language :  '  It  was  right  under  the  shadow  of 
old  John-street  Church  that  the  sudden  conviction 
came  upon  me,  and  I  gave  myself  up  completely  to  the 
power  of  God.' 

"  Her  greatest  successes  thus  far  have  been  confined 
to  conversions  among  the  working  classes,  and  have  had 
the  effect  of  encouraging  her  to  renewed  exertions  in 
the  provinces.  Her  efforts  may  be  properly  considered 
as  being  supplemental  to  the  more  extensive  work  of 
her  co-laborers  in  the  field  of  religion,  Moody  and  San- 
key." 

From  the  book  above  mentioned  the  following  is 
given  as  illustrative  of  the  old  prejudice  against  women 
speaking  in  public  prayer-meetings,  which  is  still  too 
prevalent.  One  cold,  snowy  day,  Mrs.  Van  Cott 
passed  through  Fulton  Street.  "  So  terrible  was  the 
storm,  that  she  saw  no  other  lady  on  the  street,  when 
presently  her  eye  caught  the  sign  of  the  noonday 
prayer-meeting.  Looking  at  her  watch,  she  knew  she 
had  time  to  drop  in,  get  a  blessing  from  heaven,  and 
reach  her  desired  place  of  business.  About  forty 
gentlemen  were  present,  and  she  the  only  lady.  The 
prayers  were  glorious,  the  testimonies  grand,  and  her 
heart  began  to  feel  the  glow  of  Jesus'  love.  Five 
minutes  before  one  o'clock  she  arose,  and  occupied 
three  minutes  testifying  of  the  power  of  Christ  to 
save.  She  was  sweetly  blessed.  The  meeting  closed ; 


466  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

and,  as  they  descended  the  stairs,  she  was  met  by  one 
who,  after  considerable  clearing  of  his  throat,  and  a 
polite  bow,  said,  'Ah,  madam,  ah  —  we  —  do  not  — 
ahem ! ' '  Quick  as  thought  the  truth  flashed  through 
her  mind  that  she  was  a  woman,  and  had  dared  to 
speak  of  her  precious  Saviour  in  the  presence  of  men. 
She  caught  his  words,  and  continued  them :  '  You  do 
not  permit  ladies  to  speak  in  your  meetings.' 

" '  I  won't  say  permit?  was  the  reply ;  '  but  it  is 
strictly  a  men's  meeting;  and  there  are  plenty  of 
places  elsewhere  where  women  can  speak.'  —  'I  am 
aware  of  it,  sir,  thank  God !  but  I  thought  I  felt  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord ;  and  I  am  taught  that,  where  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty.  Please  excuse 
me,  sir :  I  will  never  intrude  again.' 

"  '  Oh !  no  intrusion,  madam  ;  come  again.'  —  'Thank 
you ;  I  will  when  I  can  go  nowhere  else.' 

"  As  she  passed  on,  choked  with  deep  emotion,  a  gen- 
tleman stepped  to  her  side,  and  said,  '  Don't  weep, 
lady.  I  know  what  you  have  passed  through  ;  but  they 
have  dealt  gently  with  you.  I  have  known  them  to  tell 
ladies  of  great  refinement  and  talent  to  stop  and  sit  down, 
when  the  room  has  been  full  of  people ;  but,  as  true 
as  you  live,  I  feel  that  that  is  just  what  the  Fulton- 
street  meeting  wants  to  make  it  a  power  greater  than 
it  ever  has  been."  Happily  Mrs.  Van  Cott  belonged 
to  that  large  and  fervent  body  of  Christians  which  does 
permit  women  to  speak,  and  which  has  licensed  ANNA 
OLIVER,  HARRIET  D.  WALKER,  and  others ;  but  as  yet 
ordination  has  been  conferred  on  none.  It  is  said  that 
the  Bishop  of  California  refused  to  ordain  Mrs.  Van 
Cott,  simply  because  she  was  a  woman,  though,  as 
stated,  she  had  brought  1,785  persons  into  the  church  ; 
travelled  7,208  miles  in  the  Master's  service  ;  written  in 


WOMEN   PKEACHEES.  467 

JDO  year  650  letters,  attended  829  religious  meetings, 
and  preached  399  sermons.  During  one  year  she  had 
spent  1,779  hours  in  religious  meetings.  Though  all 
this  evidence  of  zeal  and  success  fails  to  gain  her  an 
ordination  at  the  hands  of  man,  God  shows  through  her 
how  a  woman,  even  without  ordination,  can  do  the 
work  of  an  evangelist.  Other  women  are  following  in 
her  footsteps ;  and  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  they 
will  find  all  doors  open  for  them,  and  such  men  as 
Bishops  Haven  and  Simpson  ready  to  ordain  them. 

The  Episcopalians  of  England  and  America  have  had 
noble  women  workers  in  their  churches,  and  a  class  of 
devoted  women  like  sisters  of  charity  among  -  them ; 
but  it  would  be  deemed  sacrilege  by  many  in  those 
churches  for  a  woman  to  perform  sacerdotal  duties. 
"  The  Woman's  Journal "  (vol.  v.  p.  85)  says,  "  Mrs. 
Stantoii  throws  down  a  trump  card  in  the  proposition 
that  no  woman  should  attend  a  church  where  they 
refuse  to  admit  a  woman  preacher  to  the  pulpit  on 
account  of  her  sex.  If  this  were  carried  out,  every 
church  would  have  to  succumb,  as  women  compose  the 
majority  of  the  audiences." 

"  The  Congregationalist  "  said  in  1872,  "  If  •  any 
woman  has  a  call  to  the  pulpit,  and  can  get  people  to 
hear  her  preach,  we  would  bid  her  God  speed."  That 
possibly  was  the  ground  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  took 
when  asking  a  man  who  said  he  had  a  call  to  preach, 
"  whether  he  noticed  that  people  had  a  call  to  hear 
him." 

Even  the  Swedenborgians  have  been  appealed  to  on 
the  subject  of  a  woman  ministry.  As  Mrs.  M.  A.  K. 
BENCHLEY  appealed  by  printed  circular  to  the  Episco- 
palians of  New  York  in  1874,  so  Dr.  HARRIET  CLISBV 
previously  addressed  the  "  New  Jerusalem  Conven- 


468  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

tion"  held  in  Boston  in  June,  1872,  saying  among 
other  forcible  words,  "  The  world  needs  women,  needs 
their  thought,  their  ministry,  their  active  co-operation  in 
the  performance  of  uses.  Beneath  the  calm  of  their 
pure  lives  is  an  indwelling  fire,  though  sleeping.  Touch 
it,  light  it  with  the  hopes  of  your  own  aspirations,  and 
have  them  as  co-workers  in  the  work  of  God  before 
you."  1 

The  Christians — or  Christ-ians  as  they  are  popularly 
but  incorrectly  termed  —  have  among  them  several 
woman  ministers,  ordained  with  public  services  within 
the  last  few  years.  In  1868  or  1869,  the  lamented 
Richard  F.  Fuller,  Esq.  (brother  of  Margaret  Fuller 
d'Ossoli  and  Chaplain  Arthur  B.  Fuller),  then  a  lawyer 
in  Boston,  informed  me  of  this  lady,  as  a  speaker  in 
repute  in  that  religious  body,  with  which  he  was  him- 
self connected,  and  spoke  earnestly  in  favor  of  a  regu- 
larly ordained  woman  ministry.  He  did  not  live  to  be 
present  in  the  flesh  at  her  ordination ;  but  she  is  now  a 
successful  laborer,  duly  commissioned,  in  or  near  New 
Bedford,  Mass.  I  refer  to  Rev.  ELLEN  G.  GTJSTIN,  who 
was  ordained  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Miami  Chris 
tian 'Conference,  held  in  Newton,  O.,  in  October,  1873. 
Mrs.  EMI  B.  FRANK  of  Indianapolis  was  ordained; 
Elder  Limington  offered  the  ordaining  prayer,  and 
Prof.  Weston  of  Antioch  College  gave  the  charge,  while 
Elder  McCullock,  President  of  the  Conference,  gave 
the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  A  correspondent  of  the 
"  Woman's  Journal  "  said,  "  Her  ordination  had  been 
decided  on  without  a  dissenting  voice ;  and  many  of  the 
ministers  present  gave  public  expression  of  approval  of 
women  in  the  ministry.  One  of  the  oldest  and  most 
influential  said,  *  God  has  given  to  many  women  an 

i  Woman's  Journal,  voL  iL  p.  202. 


WOMEN  PREACHERS.  469 

eloquence  that  should  be  used  for  Christ's  cause  on 
earth :  let  us  rejoice  to  welcome  them  as  co-laborers 
with  us.'  Another  said,  'The  world  groaned  with 
error  and  sin.  One  of  its  most  eminent  errors  was  that 
it  had  attempted  to  run  all  the  interests  of  life  on  a 
purely  masculine  basis;  excluding  from  public  recog- 
nition the  heart  and  intellect  of  wife,  mother,  and 
sister.'  A  resolution  was  passed  pledging  the  Confer- 
ence to  use  its  utmost  efforts  to  open  the  way  for  young 
men  and  women  to  enter  the  ministry." 1 

The  Unitarians  have  had  thus  far  but  two  regularly 
ordained  and  settled  women  ministers,  though  there  are 
several  who  frequently  officiate  in  Unitarian  pulpits, 
who  would  be  licensed  preachers,  doubtless,  if  that 
denomination  made  provision  for  such  laborers,  and 
who  ought  to  be  outwardly  set  apart  by  "  the  laying-on 
of  hands,"  since  they  are  evidently  already  ordained  by 
the  Spirit.  Among  these  occasional  preachers  may  be 
mentioned  Mrs.  JULIA  WARD  HOWE,  Mrs.  CAROLINE  H. 
DALL,  Mrs.  EDNAH  D.  CHENEY,  Miss  MARY  F.  EAST- 
MAN, and  Miss  HARRIET  M.  LTJNT.  The  two  ordained 
women  ministers  mentioned  above  were  also  settled 
pastors,  the  one  in  Brooklyn,  Conn.,  the  other  in  Mans- 
field. Mass.  Both  are  freed  from  pastoral  duties  now  ; 
the  one,  Rev.  MARY  H.  GRAVES,  remaining  in  her 
Massachusetts  home  after  recent  missionary  efforts  at 
the  West,  supplying  parishes  occasionally,  and  seeking 
to  establish  health,  never  very  firm.  I  can  speak  per- 
sonally of  her  commendable  progress,  from  a  writer  in 
Sunday-school  and  other  periodicals,  to  the  studies 
and  labors  of  the  gospel  ministry,  against  the  tide  of 
early  prejudices  in  which  she  shared,  and  the  discour- 
agement of  weak  f  .ime  and  needful  arduous  prepara- 

i  M.  F.  T.    /    Woman's  Journal,  vol.  v.,  p.  362, 


470  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

tion.  A  lover  of  literature,  a  bibliopolist  without 
being  a  bookworm,  with  her  untiring  industry  and 
ready  pen  she  has  done  good  service  in  arraying  facts 
on  various  occasions.  She  was  ordained  in  the  Uni- 
tarian church  at  Mansfield,  Mass.,  Dec.  14,  1871,  on 
which  occasion  the  services  were  as  follows :  Invoca- 
tion by  Rev.  S.  W.  Bush,  reading  of  Scriptures  by  Rev. 
William  Brown,  sermon  by  Rev.  W.  H.  Cudworth, 
occasional  hymn  by  Rev.  Phebe  A.  Hanaford,  ordain- 
ing prayer  by  Rev.  Fielder  Israel,  charge  by  Rev.  J. 
H.  Wiggin,  hand  of  fellowship  by  Rev.  Celia  Buiieigh, 
address  to  the  people  by  Rev.  Olympia  Brown,  closing 
prayer  by  Rev.  J.  D.  Pierce. 

CLARA  MARIA  BABCOCK,  herself  the  daughter  of  a 
Unitarian  clergyman,  Rev.  William  Babcock,  studied  at 
the  Unitarian  Divinity  School  in  Cambridge,  Mass.,  and 
afterward  at  Heidelberg,  Germany,  where  she  was  mar- 
ried to  Rev.  Herman  Bisbee,  and  both  were  afterward 
preachers  in  a  Unitarian  church  in  Stepney  Green, 
London.  After  the  death  of  her  husband,  who  was  a 
preacher  in  South  Boston,  she  was  ordained,  and  is  now 
preaching  acceptably. 

The  first  ordained  woman  minister  among  the  Uni- 
tarians, Rev.  CELIA  BUELEIGH,  has  recently  passed  on 
from  the  city  of  Syracuse  to  the  long  and  welcome  and 
blessed  rest  of  the  great  hereafter.  Her  graceful 
form  and  soul-lit  countenance  will  be  long  remembered ; 
and  the  beauty  of  her  spirit,  as  well  shown  in  her 
words  of  wisdom  and  love,  will  not  soon  be  forgotten. 
Her  memory  is  precious  wherever  she  was  known,  as 
the  faithful  teacher,  the  admirable  writer,  the  eloquent 
preacher.  It  was  the  privilege  of  the  writer  to  read  the 
Scriptures  and  offer  the  'opening  prayer  on  the  occasion 
of  her  ordination  in  the  quiet,  lovely  village  of  Brook- 


WOMEN   PREACHERS.  471 

lyn,  Conn.  I  said  at  the  Woman's  Congress  in  1875, 
"  Amid  '  the  golden  glory  of  October  days '  some  of  us 
who  are  here  to-day  saw  her,  in  the  beauty  of  her  ripe 
womanhood,  and  the  maturity  of  her  mental  powers, 
assume  the  important  office  of  the  Christian  minister; 
and  now  once  more,  '  amid  the  golden  glory  of  October 
days,'  we  are  together,  thinking  of  her,  and  wishing  for 
her  again  a  field  of  usefulness  commensurate  with  her 
powers.  God  has  granted  the  prayer,  even  before  it 
was  uttered ;  and  her  parish  is  composed  of  those  who, 
like  herself,  have  entered  the  realms  of  immortality. 
Her  patience  and  her  Christian  trust  are  before  us  in 
the  lustre  of  a  bright  example.  May  her  mantle  fall 
upon  another  woman  worthy  to  wear  it,  and  the  pulpit 
once  consecrated  by  the  presence  of  a  Samuel  J.  May, 
and  further  honored  by  woman  ministers  of  marvellous 
grace  of  manner,  arid  winning  melody  of  speech,  and 
wondrous  profundity  of  thought,  be  again  worthily 
filled !  "  On  the  memorable  day  of  her  ordination,  her 
former  pastor,  Rev.  John  W.  Chadwick,  preached  the 
sermon,  Rev.  William  P.  Tilden  offered  the  ordaining 
prayer,  the  charge  to  the  pastor  was  given  by  Rev. 
William  Potter,  the  welcome  to  the  ministry  by  Rev. 
Oscar  Clute,  and  the  address  to  the  people  by  Mrs. 
Julia  Ward  Howe.  The  ordination  hymn  was  from 
the  pen  of  Mr.  Chadwick,  whose  own  ordination  hymn 
had  been  from  the  pen  of  Mrs.  Burleigh's  husband, 
whose  expressed  wish  was  the  cause  in  part  of  her 
engaging  in  the  work  of  the  ministry.  This  mention 
of  her  may  fitly  be  closed  with  her  own  words,  spoken 
when  delivering  a  memorial  discourse  on  the  anniver- 
sary of  the  death  of  the  saintly  and  sainted  Samuel  J. 
May.  "  Is  it  not  to  him,"  she  said,  "  that  I,  a  woman, 
owe  the  privilege  of  standing  here  to-day  as  your 


472  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

pastor,  and  offering  this  tribute  to  his  memory  ?  Let 
us  show  our  love  and  reverence  for  him  by  living  such 
lives  as  he  would  wish  us  to  live,  by  promoting  the 
interests  which  he  held  dear ;  by  doing  our  utmost  to 
secure  to  every  human  being  the  right  to  think  his  own 
thoughts,  live  his  own  life,  to  own  no  master  but  the 
truth,  whose  mission  it  is  not  to  enslave,  but  to  make 
free.  So  living  we  shall  be  one  with  him  and  with  all 
the  brave  and  true  spirits  of  the  past ;  our  souls  will  be 
open  to  their  influence ;  we  shall  be  their  co-workers 
and  God's  strong  helpers,  carrying  forward  that  for 
which  the  worlds  were  made,  —  the  uplifting  and  en- 
nobling of  humanity." 

"  The  Jewish  Messenger "  states  that  "  as  yet,  the 
woman's  rights  movement  has  not  reached  the  syna- 
gogue. No  Jewess  is,  to  our  knowledge,  emulous  of 
Miss  Smiley  the  fair  Quakeress,  or  Mrs.  Hanaford  the 
Universalist,  and  desires  to  preach  to  her  brethren. 
The  preaching  propensity  may  exist  among  Jewesses'; 
but  it  is  confined  to  the  family  circle,  or  to  some  of  our 
ladies'  societies.  .  .  .  This  may  be  an  evidence  of  their 
degeneracy,  or  of  their  common-sense."  Whereupon 
the  "  Christian  Register "  remarks,  "  But  we  advise 
the  'Messenger'  to  beware  of  premature  exultation. 
When  human  nature  has  had  its  perfect  work  among 
the  daughters  of  Israel,  some  of  the  kinswomen  of 
Miriam  and  Deborah  may  entirely  eclipse  the  Univer- 
salist and  Presbyterian  prophetesses." 

The  latter  title  was  probably  given  to  Miss  Smiley 
because  she  made  her  first  notable  appearance  in  Rev. 
Dr.  Cuyler's  pulpit  in  Brooklyn,  N.Y.  She  still  wears 
her  Quaker  garb,  but  she  is  certainly  not  to  be  num- 
bered with  that  people,  since  she  has  submitted  to 
water  baptism  from  Rev.  Mr.  Pentecost,  and  that  is  in 


WOMEN   PREACHERS.  473 

direct  opposition  to  the  views  and  practices  of  Quakers 
But  she.  is  doing  a  good  work  in  the  pulpits  of  the 
churches  usually  closed  to  women.  The  writer  had 
great  pleasure  in  hearing  her  as  she  stood  in  the  Con- 
gregational and  Baptist  pulpits  of  New  Haven,  Conn., 
and  trusts  that  more  women  of  her  biblical  scholarship, 
and  personal  ability  in  voice  and  manner,  will  stand  in 
those  pulpits  otherwise  practically  closed  to  women,  till 
in  time  they  will  be  as  fully  open  as  others  to  the  true 
successors  of  the  clergywoman  of  Cenchrea. 

Reference  has  not  been  made  to  the  fact  that  women 
preach  or  speak  in  public  on  sabbath  days  among  the 
Spiritualists.  Such  women  as  Mrs.  AUGUSTA  COOPER 
BRISTOL  and  Mrs.  MARY  F.  DAVIS,  and  many  others 
of  noble  life  and  Christian  sympathies,  speaking  thus, 
cannot  fail  to  exert  a  mighty  influence  for  good.  But, 
as  neither  men  nor  women  seem  to  be  set  "apart  for 
preaching  or  pastoral  service  among  this  people,  their 
public  workers  are  not  here  enumerated. 

Among  the  Baptists,  —  the  Calvinistic  sort,  —  no 
women  ministers  are  known ;  but  women  speak  upon 
missionary  topics,  conduct  missionary  and  educational 
meetings,  and  are  working  grandly  so  far  as  opportu- 
nity is  given.  Among  them  I  may  mention  Mrs.  Au- 
GUSTA  M.  HOVEY  of  Newton,  Mass.,  the  accomplished 
wife  of  a  professor  in  Newton  Theological  Institution, 
whose  eloquent  words  stirred  a  large  audience  to  inter- 
est in  missions,  one  afternoon  in  New  Haven,  Conn.,  as 
she  spoke  from  the  same  pulpit  in  which  Miss  Smiley 
afterward  stood. 

Jessie,  a  Scotch  peasant,  whom  Mrs.  CAROLINE  A. 
SOULE  recently  met  at  Dundee,  when  she  was  told  by 
Mrs.  Margaret  E.  Parker  that  her  guest  Mrs.  Soule  was 
a  preacher. sometimes,  made  answer,  "  The  woman  of 


474  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

Samaria  was  the  first  missionary;"  thus  giving,  though 
a  stanch  Presbyterian  of  the  John  Knox  stamp,  the 
assent  of  her  soul  to  the  right  of  woman  to  preach 
Christ.  And  to  whom  was  the  message  given,  "  Go 
tell  my  disciples  and  Peter  that  the  Lord  has  risen," 
but  to  those  women  who  were  — 

"  Last  at  the  cross  and  earliest  at  the  grave  " 

of  our  Saviour  ?  Who  more  fitted,  more  worthy,  more 
ready,  than  woman,  to  preach  "  Jesus  and  the  resurrec- 
tion "  ?  The  coming  preacher  who  is  to  gain  the  ear  of 
the  churches  is  a  woman,  —  not  one  woman  of  any 
church,  but  the  consecrated,  God-gifted  women  preach- 
ers of  all  the  churches.  Rev.  S.  P.  Putnam  in  "  The 
Liberal  Christian  "  once  said  truly,  "  Sure  I  am  that 
the  voice  of  woman  will  be  heard  in  the  pulpit  of  the 
future ;  for  she  has  many  things  to  say  out  of  the  heart 
of  God  that  man  does  not  know,  and  of  which  he 
cannot  tell  us  [men  ministers].  She  will  speak  things 
hidden  from  the  foundation  of  the  world.  Eve  has 
been  too  long  silent.  She  must  now  tell  us  of  her 
passionate  experiences,  her  hopes,  her  aspirations,  her 
dreams,  her  longings,  her  failures,  and  her  triumphs,  in 
the  long,  long  history  of  the  world.  She  has  labored 
through  many  a  generation  with  an  unspoken  heroism  ; 
but  now  the  music  of  her  utterance  must  be  heard, 
laden  with  the  riches  of  a  wondrous  growth  that  has 
yet  been  but  faintly  comprehended.  Vast  and  beauti- 
ful are  the  visions  that  God  has  revealed  to  her  self- 
sacrificing  spirit;  and  the  world,  by  means  of  their 
expression,  will  be  lifted  up  to  a  diviner  life,  to  a  more 
tender  comprehension  of  the  universe,  and  a  finer  feel- 
ing of  its  immanent  glory.  The  pulpit  will  never 
reach  its  sublimest  power  until  woman  takes  her  place 


WOMEN  PBEACHERS.  475 

in  it  as  the  free  and  equal  interpreter  of  God.  The 
priest  must  give  way  to  the  tender  soul,  as  well  as 
manly  intellect.  The  desk  must  reverberate  the  full 
heart  of  humanity,  or  its  eloquence  will  become  a  van- 
ishing sound." 

This  chapter  may  be  finished  with  "  the  sure  word 
of  prophecy."  The  on-rolling  years  will  bring  the 
triumph  of  truth.  The  kingdoms  of  this  world  must 
become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  his  Christ,  for 
"the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it;"  and,  in  the 
great  redemptive  and  uplifting  work  of  the  future, 
woman  shall  have  her  due  proportion,  and  afterward 
the  righteous  recompense  of  reward  that  must  follow 
as  she  beholds  humanity  purified  and  blest. 

The  call  of  the  age  is  to  action,  —  to  grand,  concert- 
ed, consecrated  action.  Women  are  called  to  labor  both 
by  themselves  and  with  each  other,  for  the  elevation  of 
the  race,  for  the  enfranchisement  of  every  soul,  for  the 
breaking  of  every  fetter,  till  all  the  children  of  our 
God  are  rejoicing  in  "  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ 
maketh  free."  This  is  an  age  of  progress  ;  and,  in  the 
light  of  its  centennial  glory,  our  country  has  the  great- 
est of  all  reason  to  be  glad  in  the  advance  which  its 
women  have  made.  The  mighty  tide  of  human  progress 
is  sweeping  on  with  resistless  force,  and  no  man  shall 
ever  see  its  ebb.  Like  that  river  of  eternal  love  that 
floweth  from  beneath  the  throne  of  God,  this  sweep  of 
human  advancement  must  be  continuous  and  perpetual. 

And  the  grandest  movement  of  our  age  is  the  move- 
ment in  behalf  of  woman.  It  is  the  grandest  of  all 
the  ages.  By  the  larger  part  of  the  Christian  world 
woman  is  reverenced  in  the  Virgin  Mother;  and  by 
the  rest  is  she  revered  in  the  feminine  characteristics  of 
the  immaculate  Son.  Shall  any  true  woman,  any  Chris- 


476  WOMEN   OP  THE   CENTURY. 

tian  woman,  be  idly  a  spectator,  and  not  grandly  a 
worker,  in  the  movement  of  to-day  ? 

' '  We  are  living,  we  are  dwelling 

In  a  grand  and  awful  time  ; " 
and 

"  In  an  age  on  ages  telling 

To  be  living  is  sublime." 

How  much  more  sublime  to  be  an  actor  in  the  moral 
drama  which  attracts  the  absorbed  attention  of  the 
good  and  true,  that  sitting  above  all  conflicts,  in  the 
realms  of  peace  and  blessedness,  behold  the  coming 
triumph  of  the  Right  I  Our  dear  ones  are  there.  And 
by  all  the  love  they  had  for  Christ  and  for  his  cause, 
for  God  and  for  humanity,  the  appeal  is  here  made  to 
every  reader,  that  you  not  only  bid  the  work  of  redemp- 
tion "  God  speed,"  but  that  you  lend  to  all  efforts  for 
woman's  advancement  your  heartiest  effort  and  your 
earnest  prayer.  To  every  earnest  woman,  with  loving 
heart  and  active  brain,  comes  this  appeal :  — 

41  Up!  it  is  the  Almighty's  rally  : 

God's  own  arm  hath  need  of  thine." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


WOMEN   MISSIONARIES. 


Ann  H.  Judson  —  Harriet  Newell  —  Sarah  B.  Judson  —  Henrietta 
Shuck  —  Women  connected  with  the  various  Church  Boards  of 
Foreign  and  Home  Missions  —  Woman's  Centenary  Association  — 
Mrs.  Howe's  Peace  Mission  to  England,  <fec. 

"  What  if  to  heathen  lands  afar  the  word  of  life  he  bear? 
In  that  high  work  of  sacrifice  still  woman  hath  her  share." 

MAKY  II.  CHASE. 

"  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature."  —  MARK 


since  the  Christian  era  began,  women  have 
-J  —  ^  been  missionaries,  even  in  the  special  sense  of 
that  word,  as  much  as  men.  They  have  been  propa- 
gandists of  the  Christian  faith;  they  have  been  bene- 
factors to  the  race  in  the  work  of  disseminating  the 
truth  that  maketh  wise  unto  salvation,  by  labors  as 
teachers  among  the  heathen,  and,  by  their  pens  and 
voices  in  nominally  Christian  lands,  stimulating  those 

477 


478  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

who  were  in  the  foreign  field.  Of  all  the  many 
Christian  sects,  none  have  so  fully  acknowledged  the 
equality  of  woman,  and  her  consequent  right  to  engage 
in  all  church  work  and  missionary  service,  as  that  branch 
of  Zion  known  as  the  Society  of  Friends.  A  writer  in 
"  Macmillan's  Magazine  "  thus  truthfully  refers  to  this 
fact :  — 

"  With  regard  to  the  vexed  question  of  the  rights  of 
women,  the  position  of  women  is  undoubtedly  higher 
among  the  Friends  than  in  any  other  society.  From 
George  Fox's  time  an  equal  place  has  been  assigned 
them  in  the  family  of  God  as  in  the  human  family,  in 
the  church  as  well  as  in  human  society.  Their  divine 
commission,  '  Go  tell  my  brethren  that  I  ascend  to  my 
Father  and  their  Father,  to  my  God  and  their  God,' 
has  been  recognized  and  narrowed  down  by  no  human 
limitation.  Without  committing  ourselves  to  the  bold 
rationalizing  exegesis  of  the  Quakeress,  who,  when 
hard  pressed  by  certain  Pauline  texts  relative  to  women 
keeping  silence  in  the  church,  replied,  'Thee  knows 
Paul  was  not  partial  to  females,'  we  may  say  that  the 
Friends  alone  have  proved  themselves  free  from  the  old 
tendency  to  stick  to  the  letter  of  Scripture,  and  sin 
against  its  divine  progressive  spirit,  binding  women, 
after  nineteen  centuries  of  freedom,  with  precisely  the 
old  worn-out  bandages  and  restrictions  which  were 
necessary  to  preserve  social  order  when  first  Christian- 
ity enfranchised  women,  and  proclaimed  the  equality 
of  the  sexes.  And  perhaps  that  laborious  Society  for 
the  Protection  of  Providence,  which  exists  in  our  midst, 
might  study  the  result  with  advantage,  and  might  even 
learn  in  time,  that,  as  we  do  not  make  laws  to  prevent 
weak-armed  men  from  being  blacksmiths  (to  quote  from 


WOMEN  MISSIONARIES.  479 

John  Stuart  Mill),  so  we  need  not  in  the  long-run  make 
restrictions  to  keep  women  from  spheres  for  which 
Providence  has  unfitted  them ;  nature  being  abundantly 
strong  enough  to  preserve  the  order  of  the  sexes  with- 
out the  help  of  our  crutches.  Free  to  exercise  any  ex- 
ceptional gift  in  public,  and  taking  their  regular  share 
in  the  business  of  the  church,  the  Quaker  women  are 
profoundly  domestic,  though  with  a  certain  largeness 
of  mind,  and  absence  of  feminine  littleness,  which 
doubtless  springs  from  their  wider  training." 

It  has  been  found  by  those  men  who  have  been  mis- 
sionaries in  foreign  lands,  that,  accompanied  by  women, 
their  cause  is  more  prosperous,  for  the  wives  of  the 
men  missionaries  can  often  gain  access  to  women  as 
they  cannot ;  and  if  the  character  of  the  women  marks 
the  standard  of  society  in  every  place,  as  it  does,  then 
it  is  vastly  important  that  the  women  be  reached.  The 
women  who  have,  with  rare  self-sacrifice,  left  home 
and  native  land  for  a  home  in  heathendom,  with  mis- 
sionary husbands,  are  as  much  missionaries  as  the  men, 
though  the  latter  have  been  ordained  and  are  salaried. 
The  women  have  been  ordained  by  the  providence  of 
God,  and  in  their  spirits ;  and  their  reward  is  in  heaven. 

It  is  almost  needless  to  affirm  that  Mohammedan 
women  need  the  help  of  their  Christian  sisters  as 
much  as  the  women  of  idolatrous  nations.  A  writer 
in  "  Eraser's  Magazine"  tells  the  story  of  the  need  of 
women  missionaries  in  the  following  statement  con- 
cerning Mohammedan  women :  — 

"  In  any  serious  question  of  reform  among  Mohamme- 
dans, the  position  of  women  must  occupy  a  prominent 
place.  We  are  not  now  speaking  of  polygamy,  but  of 


480  WOMEN    OP   THE   CENTURY. 

the  seclusion  of  women,  the  abnegation  of  their  influ 
ence,  and,  as  a  corollary  of  this,  the  rearing  of  the 
entire  population  in  frivolity,  ignorance,  and  vice. 
The  Koran  bids  men  '  respect  women  of  whom  they 
are  born ; '  but  a  few  isolated  precepts  like  this  are 
powerless  against  its  general  tenor.  The  Turkish 
women  shuffle  unnoticed  through  the  streets  in  their 
yellow  slippers,  or  sit  for  hours  in  the  meadows  of  the 
'  sweet  waters,'  their  bright  ferejehs  gleaming  like  a 
party-colored  bed  of  tulips.  If  their  owner  is  a  man 
of  mark,  they  are  taken  for  an  airing  in  a  gilded  coach, 
or  they  are  huddled  like  sheep  by  their  black  wardens 
into  a  separate  pen  on  the  little  steamers  which  pant 
busily  across  the  Golden  Horn.  The  life  of  a  Turkish 
woman  is  vapid  and  meaningless ;  she  is  as  ignorant 
as  a  child :  yet  even  the  grand  vizierat  is  often  at  the 
disposal  of  harem  intrigue.  And,  if  we  would  discover 
the  canker  which  lies  at  the  root  of  Turkish  society,  we 
must  seek  it  in  the  practice  which  condemns  the  chil- 
dren of  both  sexes  to  the  vicious  atmosphere  of  the 
harem  during  the  most  plastic  years  of  life.  The  origin 
of  this  treatment  of  women  we  shall  find  not  in  the 
dictates  of  Oriental  jealousy,  but  in  the  teaching  of 
the  Koran.  The  divine  book  by  no  means  ignores  the 
existence  of  woman.  It  lays  down  most  careful  and 
minute  rules  for  her  walk  in  life.  But  it  treats  her 
rather  as  an  adjunct  to  man  than  as  an  independent, 
responsible  being.  Obedience  is  the  corner-stone, — 
obedience  to  him  who  rules  over  her.  Home  is  her 
proper  place ;  but  if  she  goes  abroad  she  must  veil 
her  face  and  breast,  —  nay,  some  say,  even  her  hands. 
v Speak  unto  thy  wives  and  thy  daughters,  and  the 
wives  of  the  true  believers,'  says  the  Koran,  '  that  they 
cast  their  outer  garments  over  them  when  they  walk 


WOMEN  MISSIONARIES.  481 

abroad.  Believing  women  must  not  discover  their  orna- 
ments ;  .  .  .  and  let  them  throw  their  veils  over  their 
bosoms.'  It  is  in  such  light  matters  as  these  that  we 
see  the  difficulty  of  a  change  in  the  current  of  Eastern 
thought.  It  is  not  merely  the  inveterate  habit  of 
centuries,  though  this  is  stronger  than  law,  but  also  a 
matter  of  religion.  The  Spanish  lady  may  exchange 
her  mantilla  for  a  Paris  bonnet,  with  a  sigh  perhaps  at 
the  despotism  of  fashion ;  but,  if  her  Turkish  sister  lays 
aside  her  yashmak,  she  infringes  solemn  ordinances  of 
her  religion,  and  degrades  herself  in  the  sight  of  all. 
If,  however,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Koran  awards  a  very 
modest  place  in  the  scheme  of  society  to  women,  it  does 
not,  as  many  have  supposed,  absolve  her  from  responsi- 
bilities here,  or  exclude  her  from  participation  in  the 
life  to  come.  This  would  be  manifest,  even  though  no 
other  duty  had  been  enjoined  than  performing  the  pil- 
grimage to  Mecca,  which  is  of  such  paramount  impor- 
tance that  it  is  declared  that  a  man  might  as  well  die  a 
Jew  or  a  Christian  as  neglect  it.  It  has  been  errone- 
ously supposed  that  the  Koran  allows  women  no  souls. 
But  it  expressly  states  that  the  devout  Mussulman,  in 
addition  to  his  seventy-two  celestial  brides,  shall  be 
allowed  the  company  of  any  of  his  wives  in  paradise, 
of  whom  he  may  not  have  grown  tired  on  earth.  The 
Prophet  too,  finding  that  his  interrogator,  on  one  occa- 
sion, was  not  satisfied  with  the  declaration  that  there 
would  be  no  old  women  in  heaven,  hastened  to  add 
that  he  only  meant  by  this  that  all  would  be  restored 
to  youth ;  though,  to  be  sure,  when  he  was  permitted 
to  take  a  bird's-eye  view  of  heaven  and  hell,  he  saw 
that  most  of  tlw  inhabitants  of  the  latter  place  were 
women.  The  absence  of  women  from  mosques  has 
I  robably  led  hasty  observers  to  the  above  conclusion  j 


482  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

but  this  is  only  due  to  the  desire  that  they  should  not 
distract  the  attention  of  the  male  worshippers." 

Even,  then,  in  the  lands  of  the  Crescent  the  woman 
disciples  of  the  cross  can  be  abundantly  useful.  The 
same  is  undeniably  true  in  regard  to  all  other  lands 
where  the  light  of  the  truth  is  dawning,  or  yet  to 
dawn. 

It  would  be  simply  impossible  to  give  even  a  para- 
graph to  each  of  the  women  missionaries  who  have 
gone  forth  to  foreign  lands  for  Jesus'  sake.  A  few 
only  can  be  mentioned  here.  American  missions 
began  in  the  present  century ;  and  every  woman  mis- 
sionary who  has  gone  from  our  shores  has  been  a 
woman  of  our  national  century.  The  three  women 
who  successively  became  the  companions  of  Adoniram 
Judson  are  known  and  honored  in  all  the  churches. 
Their  memoirs  have  been  written,  and  are  easy  of 
access,  and  as  thrilling  as  any  work  of  fiction  to  the 
Christian  heart.  Says  Mrs.  Hale,  "  Mrs.  ANN  H. 
JUDSON  was  the  first  American  woman  who  resolved 
to  leave  her  friends  and  country  to  bear  the  gospel  to 
the  heathen  in  foreign  climes.  Well  does  she  merit 
the  reverence  and  love  of  all  Christians ;  nor  can  the 
nineteenth  century  furnish  the  record  of  a  woman 
who  so  truly  deserves  the  title,  a  missionary  heroine." 
The  brief  sketch  of  the  pioneer  woman  missionary,  as 
t;iven  by  Mrs.  Hale,  is  as  follows :  "  Ann  Hasseltine 
Judson  was  born  in  1789,  in  Bradford,  Mass.  She  was 
carefully  educated,  and  became  early  distinguished  for 
her  deep  and  earnest  religious  character.  In  February, 
1812,  she  married  Adoniram  Judson ;  and  in  the  same 
month  sailed  for  Calcutta,  her  husband  being  appointed 
missionary  to  India.  Soon  after  they  reached  Calcutta, 


WOMEN  MISSIONARIES.  483 

they  were  ordered  by  the  East  India  Company,  who 
were  opposed  to  all  missionary  labors  among  the 
natives,  to  quit  the  country.  While  waiting  for  an 
opportunity  of  leaving,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Judson  employed 
their  time  in -investigating  the  subject  of  baptism  ;  and, 
being  convinced  that  their  previous  opinions  had  been 
erroneous,  they  joined  the  Baptist  church  at  Calcutta. 
In  July,  1813,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Judson  arrived  at 
Rangoon  in  Burmah,  where  for  many  years  they 
labored  successfully  and  diligently  in  the  cause  of 
religion.  In  1821,  in  consequence  of  protracted  ill 
health,  Mrs.  Judson  returned  alone  to  America,  where 
she  remained  till  1823,  when  she  rejoined  her  husband 
in  Rangoon.  Difficulties  arising  between  the  govern- 
ment of  Bengal  and  the  Burman  empire,  and  the 
taking  of  Rangoon  by  the  British  in  1824,  caused  the 
imprisonment  of  Mr.  Judson  and  several  other  for- 
eigners who  were  at  Ava,  the  capital  of  the  Burman 
empire.  For  two  years  the  inexpressible  sufferings 
endured  by  these  prisoners  were  alleviated  by  the  con- 
stant care  and  exertions  of  Mrs.  Judson ;  and  it  was 
owing  in  a  great  measure  to  her  efforts  that  they  were 
at  last  released.  In  1826  the  missionary  establishment 
was  removed  from  Rangoon  to  Amherst ;  and  in 
October  of  that  year  Mrs.  Judson  died  of  a  fever  dur- 
ing her  husband's  absence.  The  physician  attributed 
the  fatal  termination  of  the  disease  to  the  injury  her 
constitution  had  received  from  her  long-protracted  suf- 
ferings and  severe  privations  at  Ava.  In  about  six 
months  after  her  death  her  only  child,  an  infant  daugh- 
ter, was  laid  by  her  side."  Dr.  Judson  married,  for  his 
second  wife,  the  widow  of  the  missionary  Board- 
man. 
SARAH  B.  JUDSON  was  born  in  Alsteacl,  N.H.,  Nov 


184  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

4,  1803 ;  was  "  married  to  George  D.  Boardman  in 
1825,  and  soon  after  accompanied  her  husband  and 
other  missionaries  to  Calcutta.  The  first  destination 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Boardman  was  Tavoy ;  and  there, 
after  encountering  great  dangers  and  sufferings,  and 
overcoming  appalling  difficulties  and  discouragements, 
in  all  of  which  Mrs.  Boardman  shared,  Mr.  Boardman 
died  in  1831.  She  had  previously  lost  two  children  ; 
one  only,  a  son,  was  left  her,  and  they  were  alone  in 
a  strange  land.  But  she  did  not  desert  her  missionary 
duties.  Four  years  she  remained  a  widow,  and  then 
was  united  in  marriage  with  Rev.  Dr.  Judson.  Their 
union  was  a  happy  one ;  but  after  the  birth  of  her 
fourth  child  her  health  failed,  and  a  voyage  to  America 
was  recommended  as  the  only  hope  of  restoration.  Dr. 
Judson,  with  his  wife  and  children,  took  passage  for 
their  own  country ;  but,  on  reaching  the  Isle  of  France, 
Mrs.  Judson's  health  was  so  greatly  improved,  that  Dr. 
Judson,  whose  duties  in  Burmah  were  urgent,  deter- 
mined to  return,  while  his  wife  and  children  should 
visit  America.  The  arrangements  were  accordingly 
made ;  and,  in  expectation  of  the  parting,"  Mrs.  Jud- 
son wrote  a  sweet  poem  commencing,  — 

1 '  We  part  on  this  green  islet,  love,  — 

Thou  for  the  eastern  main; 
I  for  the  setting  sun,  love, 
Oh  1  when  to  meet  again?  " 

und  closing  with  this  stanza :  — 

"  Then  gird  thine  armor  on,  love, 

Nor  faint  then  by  the  way, 
Till  Boodh  shall  fall,  and  Burmah 
Shall  own  Messiah's  sway." 


WOMEN  MISSIONARIES.  485 

One  verse  in  the  poem  has  been  often  quoted,  for  ita 
sweetness  and  truth  :  — 

"  Yet  my  spirit  clings  to  thine,  love, 

Thy  soul  remains  with  me; 
And  oft  we'll  hold  communion  sweet 
O'er  the  dark  and  distant  sea." 

But  they  did  not  part  then ;  for  on  putting  out  to  sea 
Mrs.  Judson  grew  worse,  and  died  in  sight  of  the  rocky 
island  of  St.  Helena ;  and  there  her  form  is  resting. 
The  island  has  become  noted  as  the  place  where  Napo- 
leon died,  but  it  is  dearer  to  Christian  hearts  the  world 
over  as  the  place  where  Sarah  B.  Judson's  body  rests. 
The  warrior  is  eclipsed  by  the  woman  missionary. 

EMILY  C.  JUDSON,  the  third  wife  of  Adoniram  Jud- 
son, has  been  mentioned  among  literary  women.  She 
was  a  faithful  laborer  in  the  Master's  cause,  and  won  a 
pure  renown,  both  as  a  writer  and  a  missionary. 

HARRIET  NEWELL,  "  the  first  American  heroine  of 
the  missionary  enterprise,  was  born  at  Haverhill,  Mass., 
Oct.  10,  1793.  Her  maiden  name  was  Atwood.  In 
1806,  while  at  school  at  Bradford,  she  became  deeply 
impressed  with  the  importance  of  religion ;  and  at  the 
age  of  sixteen  she  joined  the  church.  On  the  9th  of 
February,  1812,  she  married  the  Rev.  Samuel  Newell, 
missionary  to  the  Burman  empire ;  and  in  the  same 
month  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Newell  embarked  with  their 
friends  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Judson  for  India.  On  the  arri- 
val of  the  missionaries  at  Calcutta,  they  were  ordered 
to  leave  by  the  East  India  Company ;  and  accordingly 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Newell  embarked  for  the  Isle  of  France. 
Three  weeks  before  reaching  the  island  she  became  the 
mother  of  a  child  which  died  in  five  days.  On  the 
30th  of  November,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  she  expired, 


486  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTUKY. 

far  from  home  and  friends.  .  .  .  Her  most  earnest 
wish  was  to  do  good  for  the  cause  of  Christ,  and  be  of 
service  in  teaching  his  gospel  to  the  heathen.  .  .  . 
'  Her  work  was  short,  her  toil  soon  ended ;  but  she  fell, 
cheering  by  her  dying  words  and  her  high  example  the 
missionaries  of  all  coming  time.  She  was  the  first,  but 
not  the  only  martyr.  Heathen  lands  are  dotted  over 
with  the  graves  of  fallen  Christians ;  missionary  wom- 
en sleep  on  almost  every  shore ;  and  the  bones  of 
some  are  whitening  in  the  fathomless  depths  of  the 
ocean.  Never  will  the  influence  of  this  devoted  wo- 
man be  estimated  properly,  until  the  light  of  an  eternal 
day  shall  shine  on  all  the  actions  of  men.  We  are  to 
measure  her  glory,  not  by  what  she  suffered,  for  others 
have  suffered  more  than  she  did.  But  we  must  remem- 
ber that  she  went  out  when  the  missionary  enterprise 
was  in  its  infancy,  when  even  the  best  of  men  looked 
upon  it  with  suspicion.  The  tide  of  opposition  she 
dared  to  stem ;  and  with  no  example,  no  predecessor 
from  American  shores,  she  went  out  to  rend  the  veil  of 
darkness  which  gathered  over  all  the  nations  of  the 
East.  Things  have  changed  since  then.  Our  mission- 
aries go  forth  with  the  approval  of  all  the  good ;  and 
the  odium  which  once  attended  such  a  life  is  swept 
away.  It  is  to  some  extent  a  popular  thing  to  be  a  mis- 
sionary, although  the  work  is  still  one  of  hardship  and 
suffering.  It  is  this  fact  which  gathers  such  a  splendor 
around  the  name  of  Harriet  Newell,  and  invests  her 
short,  eventful  life  with  such  a  charm.  She  went 
when  no  foot  had  trodden  out  the  path,  and  was  the 
first  American  missionary  ever  called  to  an  eternal  re- 
ward.' "  ! 

Harriet  Newell  left  a  journal  and  a  few  letters,  the 

1  Heroines  of  the  Missionary  Enterprise,  quoted  by  Mrs.  Hale. 


WOMEN  MISSION AKIES.  487 

record  of  her  religious  feelings,  and  the  events  of  her 
short  missionary  life.  Those  fragments  have  been 
published,  making  a  little  book.  "  Such  is  her  con- 
tribution to  literature.  Yet  this  small  work  has  been, 
and  is  now,  of  more  importance  to  the  intellectual 
progress  of  the  world  than  all  the  works  of  Mme.  de 
Stael.  The  writings  of  Harriet  Newell,  translated  into 
several  tongues,  and  published  in  many  editions,  have 
reached  the  heart  of  society,  and  assisted  to  build  up 
the  throne  of  woman's  power,  even  the  moral  influence 
of  her  sex  over  men.  Their  intellect  can  never  reach 
its  highest  elevation  but  through  the  medium  of  moral 
cultivation."  1 

ELIZABETH  BAKER  DWIGHT  was  born  in  Andover, 
Mass.,  in  1808 ;  in  1820  married  Rev.  H.  G.  O.  Dwight, 
and  sailed  with  him  to  Malta,  where  she  resided  two 
years,  her  husband  being  a  missionary  to  that  place. 
She  was  actively  and  very  usefully  engaged  while  there, 
and  when  her  husband  removed  to  Constantinople.  .  .  . 
The  missionary  family  resided  at  San  Stefano,  near  the 
Bosphorus.  Scenes  of  beauty  and  of  storied  interest 
were  around  Mrs.  Dwight ;  still  she  had  few  opportuni- 
ties of  visiting  the  remarkable  places  in  this  region  of 
the  world.  Once  she  made  an  excursion  with  Lady 
Franklin  and  an  American  friend  to  the  Black  Sea,  and 
found  her  health  renovated  ;  still  she  was  drooping  and 
delicate,  like  a  transplanted  flower  which  pines  for  its 
own  mountain  home,  and  the  fresh  breezes  and  pure 
sunshine  of  its  first  blossoming.  In  the  spring  of 
1837  the  plague  appeared  at  Constantinople  ;  and  Mrs. 
Dwight  felt  she  was  one  of  its  doomed  victims.  The 
presentiment  proved  true.  She  died  on  July  8,  1837  ; 
her  devoted  husband  being  the  only  person  who  re- 

1  Mrs.  Halo's  Woman's  Record. 


488  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

mained  to  watch  over,  comfort  her,  and  receive  her 
last  breath.  She  was  only  twenty-nine  years  of  age, 
and  had  hardly  become  habituated  to  the  missionary 
cross,  when  she  was  called  to  wear  its  crown." 

SARAH  LANMAN  SMITH,  born  in  Norwich,  Conn., 
June  18,  1802.  Her  biography  has  been  written  by 
Rev.  E.  W.  Hooker,  and  is  commended  to  the  reader. 
She  commenced  teaching  in  Sunday  school  when  only 
fourteen.  In  1833  she  married  Rev.  Eli  Smith  of  the 
American  mission  at  Beyroot,  Syria ;  and  "  she  went 
to  that  remote  region  as  the  '  helpmeet '  for  a  humble 
missionary.  She  was  singularly  fitted  for  this  impor- 
tant station,  having  been  a  voluntary  missionary  to  the 
miserable  remnant  of  a  tribe  of  Mohegan  Indians.  She 
had  thus  tested  her  powers,  and  strengthened  her  love 
for  this  arduous  work,  in  the  cause  of  doing  good.  Her 
letters  to  her  father  and  friends,  while  reflecting  on  this 
important  step  of  a  foreign  mission,  will  be  intensely 
interesting  to  those  who  regard  this  consecration  of 
woman  to  her  office  of  moral  teacher  as  among  the 
most  efficient  causes  of  the  success  of  the  gospel.  The 
literary  merits  of  her  writings  are  of  a  high  order.  We 
venture  to  say,  that,  compared  with  the  '  journals '  and 
'  letters '  of  the  most  eminent  men  in  the  missionary 
station,  those  of.  Mrs.  Smith  will  not  be  found  inferior 
hi  merits  of  any  kind.  .  .  .  Such  are  the  helpers  Chris- 
tian men  may  summon  to  their  aid,  whenever  they  will 
provide  for  the  education  of  woman,  and  give  her  the 
office  of  teacher,  for  which  God  designed  her.  Mrs 
Smith  accompanied  her  husband  to  Beyroot,  and  was 
indeed  his  '  help,'  and  good  angel.  She  studied  Arabic, 
established  a  school  for  girls,  exerted  her  moral  and 
Christian  influence  with  great  effect  on  the  mixed 
population  of  Moslems,  Syrians,  Jews,  visiting  and  in- 


WOMEN  MISSIONARIES.  489 

structing  the  mothers  as  well  as  the  children,  working 
with  all  her  heart  and  soul,  mind  and  might ;  and  the 
time  of  her  service  soon  expired.  She  died  Sept.  30, 
1836,  aged  thirty-four,  a  little  over  three  years  from 
the  time  she  left  her  own  dear  land.  She  died  at 
Boojah,  near  Smyrna  ;  and  in  the  burial-ground  of  the 
latter  her  precious  dust  reposes  beneath  a  monument 
which  does  honor  to  America  by  showing  the  heroic 
and  holy  character  of  her  missionary  daughters."  1 

FBANCES  M.  HILL  is,  as  Mrs.  Hale  says,  "  deservedly 
honored  for  her  long  and  beneficial  exertions  in  the 
cause  of  female  education  in  Greece."  She  was  born 
in  New  York  City,  and  married  Rev.  John  H.  Hill. 
In  1831  an  attempt  was  made  by  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  America  to  assist  the  most  ancient 
Eastern  Church  of  Christ,  that  of  the  Greek.  In  pur- 
suance of  this  plan,  the  Rev.  John  H.  Hill  and  his 
wife  were  sent  to  Athens,  to  found  and  superintend 
such  seminaries  of  learning  and  Christian  morals  as 
they  might  find  practicable  and  useful.  Athens,  on 
their  arrival,  presented  to  them  when  entering  within 
its  crumbling  walls,  a  scene  of  desolation  such  as  inevit- 
ably follows  in  the  bloody  train  of  war.  The  city  was 
one  mass  of  ruins,  over  and  among  which  these  mis- 
sionary teachers  had  then  to  pick  their  almost  pathless 
way.  In  the  course  of  a  few  weeks,  they  began  to 
gather  around  them  the  destitute,  half-clad,  ignorant 
daughters  of  Greece ;  although  many  of  these  were 
among  the  well-born,  who  had  been  reduced  to  poverty 
by  the  war  which  had  for  a  time  levelled  all  classes. 
Upon  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hill  was  devolved  the  momentous 
task  of  moulding  the  new  social  features  of  the  Greek 
people,  just  escaped  from  Turkish  bondage,  and  soon 
i  Mrs.  Hale, 


490  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

to  take  their  position  among  the  civilized  nations  of 
Europe."  This  great  missionary  work,  which  has  now 
been  continued  many  long  years,  "  is  acknowledged  te 
be  the  means  of  incalculable  and  unqualified  good  to 
the  land  of  Pericles  and  Aspasia." 

SARAH  DAVIS  COMSTOCK  of  Brookline,  Mass.,  sailed 
in  June,  1834,  to  Burmah,  with  her  husband,  as  a 
missionary.  "  In  his  labors  between  Arracan  and  Bur- 
mah Mr.  Comstock  found  his  wife  of  great  assistance. 
Whenever  women  came  near  the  house,  she  would 
instantly  leave  her  occupation,  if  possible,  to  tell  them 
of  the  Saviour.  She  collected  a  school,  translated  the 
Scripture  catechism,  and  administered  both  medicine 
and  advice  to  the  sick,  besides  teaching  her  own  chil- 
dren, and  attending  to  household  duties.  In  the  even- 
ing, whenever  she  could  be  out,  she  might  often  be 
found  with  several  native  women  collected  around  her, 
to  whom  she  was  imparting  religious  knowledge. 
Mrs.  Comstock's  faith  was  strong  that  ere  long  Arra- 
can would,  as  a  country,  acknowledge  God  as  its  ruler ; 
and  in  this  expectation  she  labored  until  death  came 
to  lead  her  away  to  her  infinite  reward.  She  died  of 
a  disease  peculiar  to  the  climate,  on  the  28th  April, 
1843,  leaving  four  children,  two  of  whom  had  previously 
been  sent  to  America  for  instruction;  the  other  two 
soon  followed  her  to  the  grave.  Nothing  could  exceed 
the  sorrow  expressed  by  the  natives  for  her  loss.  More 
than  two  thousand  came  on  the  day  after  her  death  to 
share  their  grief  with  her  afflicted  husband,  who  sur- 
vived her  loss  but  a  few  months. 

ANNIE  P.  JAMES,  born  in  Salem,  Mass.,  Dec.  22, 
1825,  was  the  daughter  of  Joshua  Safford  of  that  city, 
vvas  married  to  Dr.  Sexton  James  of  Philadelphia,  and 
they  sailed  for  China  as  missionaries.  When  near 


WOMEN   MISSIONARIES.  491 

Hong-Kong,  on  April  15,  1848,  the  vessel  in  which 
they  were  was  upset,  and  the  sacrifice  upon  the  altar 
of  missions  was  accepted.  Both  were  drowned  before 
their  noble  work  had  commenced. 

"  The  flower,  though  offered  in  the  bud, 
Is  no  vain  sacrifice." 

ELEANOR  MACOMBER,  born  hi  1801,  at  Lake  Pleas- 
ant, Hamilton  County,  N.Y.,  was  sent  out  by  the 
Baptists  in  1830,  to  labor  among  the  Ojibwas  in 
Michigan.  In  1836  she  went  to  Maulmain,  Burmah, 
as  a  missionary.  "Here  she  lived  and  labored  almost 
alone,  doing  the  great  work  which  was  assigned  her. 
In  the  midst  of  discouragements  she  fainted  not,  but 
performed  labors  and  endured  afflictions  almost  incred- 
ible. When  she  arrived  at  the  scene  of  her  future 
labors,  she  found  vice  and  sin  reigning  triumphant. 
On  every  hand  intemperance  and  sensuality  were  ob- 
servable. She  immediately  commenced  in  their  midst 
the  worship  of  God.  On  the  sabbath  the  people  were 
drawn  together  to  hear  the  story  of  the  cross;  and 
during  the  week  her  house  was  thrown  open  for  morn- 
ing and  evening  prayers.  By  her  perseverance  she 
soon  collected  a  small  school ;  and  in  less  than  a  year  a 
church  of  natives,  numbering  more  than  twenty  persons, 
was  formed,  and  placed  under  the  care  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Stephens.  Intemperance,  sensuality,  and  other  vices 
gradually  disappeared,  and  the  Christian  virtues  took 
their  place.  The  idea  of  a  weak,  friendless,  and  lone 
woman  trusting  herself  among  a  drunken  and  sensual 
people,  and  there  with  no  husband,  father,  or  brother, 
establishing  public  worship,  opening  her  house  for 
prayer  and  praise,  and  gathering  schools  in  the  midst 
af  wild  and  unlettered  natives,  ia  one  full  of  moral 


492  WOMEN  OP  THE   CENTURY. 

grandeur.  Intelligent,  active,  and  laborious,  Miss  Ma- 
comber  was  not  content  with  teaching  all  who  came  to 
her :  she  went  out  to  the  surrounding  tribes,  attended 
only  by  one  or  two  converts ;  and  fording  rivers,  cross- 
ing ravines,  climbing  high  hills  and  mountains,  she 
everywhere  carried  the  doctrines  of  salvation.  Even 
the  heathen  heart  was  touched  by  this  spectacle ;  and 
this  estimable  woman  was  respected  and  loved  by 
those  who  hated  the  gospel  she  taught.  Miss  Macom- 
ber  died  April  16,  1840,  of  the  jungle  fever,  at  Maul- 
main,  where  she  had  been  carried  for  the  purpose  of 
obtaining  medical  aid.  Her  death  was  deeply  lamented 
by  the  natives;  and  those  who  did  not  love  the 
Saviour  mourned  the  loss  of  his  servant,  whose  kind- 
ness and  hospitality  they  had  experienced,  and  followed 
her  to  the  grave  with  wails  of  sorrow."  1 

HENRIETTA  SHUCK  was  born  in  Kilmarnock,  Va., 
Oct.  28,  1817.  She  was  the  daughter  of  a  Baptist 
clergyman,  Rev.  Addison  Hall.  She  was  baptized 
when  about  twelve  years  of  age,  "but  her  extreme 
youth  did  not  prevent  her  from  keeping  faithfully  the 
vows  she  so  early  took  upon  herself.  On  Sept.  8, 1835, 
she  was  married  to  Rev.  J.  Lewis  Shuck,  and  went  as 
a  missionary  to  China.  Eight  years  she  labored  there 
successfully,  having  learned  the  Chinese  language. 
She  died  Nov.  27,  1847,  soon  after  the  birth  of  her 
fifth  child.  During  the  last  year  of  her  life,  a  new 
schoolhouse  had  been  erected,  and  a  school  gathered 
under  her  care,  of  twenty  Chinese  boys  and  six  girls, 
besides  her  own  four  children.  An  interesting  memoir 
has  been  published.  She  was  the  first  American  woman 
missionary  to  China.  MARY  ELIZABETH  VAN  LENNEP, 
born  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  April  16, 1821,  was  the  daugh- 

1  Mrs.  Hiilo's  Woman's  Ilccord. 


WOMEN  MISSIONARIES.  493 

ter  of  Rev.  Dr.  Hawes  of  that  city.  She  became  a 
Christian  when  very  young ;  and  in  1843  she  married 
Rev.  Henry  J.  Van  Lennep,  a  missionary  to  Turkey, 
whither  she  accompanied  him,  and  labored  in  the  mis- 
sion school,  but  died  Sept.  27,  1844 ;  and  her  body  was 
placed  in  the  Protestant  graveyard  near  Constantinople. 
"  She  hath  done  what  she  could." 

In  Mrs.  Hale's  "  Woman's  Record  "  is  a  long  list, 
comprising  some  hundreds  of  names,  of  women  who 
have  been  or  are  missionaries  in  foreign  lands,  sent  by 
the  American  Board  of  the  Congregational  Church,  by 
the  Baptists,  Episcopalians,  and  Presbyterians,  and 
others.  Nobler  women  than  those  connected  with  these 
foreign  missions  were  never  known.  Their  "  praise  is 
in  all  the  churches;"  and  their  heroic  sacrifices  and 
successful  labors  prove  them  to  have  had  as  divine  a 
call  to  their  Christian  work  as  ever  their  husbands  had 
to  the  ministering  of  the  word.  FIDELIA  FISKE  toiling 
so  faithfully  among  the  Nestorians,  Mrs.  BENTON  so  long 
and  well  at  Mount  Lebanon  mission,  are  but  types  of 
hundreds  of  other  women  worthy  of  reverence  and 
fame.  Of  many  women  missionaries,  biographical 
sketches  have  been  printed  in  various  periodicals,  and 
in  volumes  numerous  enough  for  a  small  library,  and 
valuable  beyond  computation  to  the  Christian  cause. 
The  value  of  this  chapter  would  be  greatly  enhanced 
by  a  complete  list  of  these  good  books ;  but  the  writer 
must  content  herself  with  earnestly  advising  other 
women  to  read  all  the  records  of  women  missionaries 
within  their  reach.  Creeds  may  differ,  but  the  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice  and  earnest  toil  for  humanity  is  every- 
where commendable.  Such  memoirs  as  those  of  Mrs. 
SARAH  EMILY  YOEK,  Mrs.  HELEN  M.  MASON,  LUCY 


494  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUKY. 

T.  LORD,  and  others,  will  bless  their  readers.  In  the 
memoir  of  Rev.  David  T.  Stoddard  is  the  record  of  his 
noble  wife,  HABRIET  B.  STODDAED,  who  was  a  sister 
of  Mrs.  Caroline  A.  Mason,  previously  mentioned. 
Mrs.  Stoddard  died  at  Trebizond,  in  August,  1848. 
She  was  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Calvin  Briggs  of  Marble- 
head,  Mass.,  and  a  teacher  at  one  time  in  Bradford 
Academy,  so  hallowed  by  the  memory  of  Harriet  Newell 
and  Ann  H.  Judson,  who  were  students  there.  Many 
other  noble  women  are  mentioned  in  the  memoirs  of 
their  missionary  husbands  in  such  wise  as  to  show  that 
they  are  worthy  women  of  the  century,  who  are  sowing 
the  seed  of  the  kingdom  in  the  spirit  of  their  Master. 

Among  the  missionary  efforts  of  women  should  be 
mentioned  that  of  the  Woman's  Centenary  Association 
of  the  Universalists  in  America.  During  the  centen- 
nial year  of  the  existence  of  their  denomination,  that 
body  of  women  raised  $35,974.73 ;  and  since  that  date 
this  sum  has  been  increased  so  that  more  than  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  has  been  raised,  some  of  which 
has  been  expended  in  establishing  a  mission  in  Scotland. 
The  president,  Mrs.  C.  A.  Soule,  has  herself  performed 
missionary  service  in  the  land  of  Knox,  as  well  as  much 
similar  work  for  Christ  in  our  own  land.  Rev.  Phebe 
A.  Hanaford  is  one  of  the  State  Missionary  Committee 
in  New  Jersey,  and  has  done  a  little  home  missionary 
work.  The  same  is  true  of  other  women  ministers  who 
are  missionaries  ex  officio,  their  commission  from  on  high 
leaving  them  at  liberty  to  sow  the  good  seed  beside  all 
waters.  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe's  mission  to  England, 
in  behalf  of  the  cause  of  peace,  may  properly  be  men- 
tioned under  this  head ;  for  the  animus  of  all  true  mis- 
sionary work,  home  or  foreign,  is  in  harmony  with  the 


WOMEN  MISSIONARIES.  495 

angel  anthem,  "  Peace  on  earth."  Every  effort  to  dis- 
courage war  is  an  effort  to  spread  the  reign  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace. 

"  Salvation,  oh  salvation! 

The  joyful  sound  proclaim, 
Till  earth's  remotest  nation 
Has  learned  Messiah's  name." 


CHAPTER  XV. 

• 

WOMEN   EDUCATOES. 

Catherine  E.  Beecher—  Mary  Lyon  —  Elizabeth  P.  Peabody  — Martha 
Whiting  —  Wages  of  Women  as  Teachers  —  Women  on  School 
Committees,  and  as  Trustees  and  Professors  of  Educational  In- 
stitutions. 

"  But  turning  from  the  sacred  page,  alike  in  the  profane, 
We  need  not  look  for  evidence  of  woman's  worth  in  vain." 

MAEY  M.  CHASE. 

"  Teachers  of  good  things."  —  Trr.  ii.  3. 

in  DUG  ATION  is  a  magical  word  in  some  regions. 
-L^  It  means  more  than  most  persons  imagine.  Its 
derivation  implies  the  idea  of  a  leader ;  and  such  wise 
and  faithful  leaders  to  draw  forth  the  ideas,  and  help 
the  intellectual  growth  of  the  pupil,  our  country  has 
happily  known,  among  her  women  as  among  her  men. 

President  Eliot  of  Harvard  College  has  presented 
the  idea  that  high  education  is  hereditary.  If  so,  it 
is  true  in  regard  to  mothers  and  daughters  as  well  as 
to  fathers  and  sons.  He  says  that  the  triennial  cata- 
logues of  the  older  American  colleges  prove  beyond  a 

496 


WOMEN  EDUCATORS.  497 

doubt,  that  it  is  chiefly  the  people  who  themselves 
have  trained  minds  who  desire  thorough  training  for 
their  children,  and  are  able  to  procure  it  for  them. 
Culture  is  much  surer  to  descend  to  children  than 
wealth,  because  the  natural  forces  of  hereditary  trans- 
mission are  on  its  side.  And  the  college  catalogues 
would  show  this  to  be  true  in  regard  to  women  stu- 
dents, if  only  those  colleges  had  for  long  years  been 
open  to  the  daughters  as  well  as  to  the  sons  of  those 
who  have  so  liberally  supported  and  endowed  them. 

"  The  Boston  Journal,"  reporting  Ex-Gov.  Bullock's 
address  at  the  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary  says,  — 

"  But  the  chief  motive  cause  in  the  elevation  of  the 
sex  during  the  last  part  of  the  century  has  been  the 
quickening  power  of  education.  The  Reformation  be- 
gan this  agency,  chivalry  did  something  towards  it, 
and  the  Church  to  a  certain  degree  lent  its  aid ;  but  it 
was  only  under  a  combination  of  modern  influences 
that  the  work  rapidly  ripened.  The  present  American 
system  of  female  education  is  the  result  of  a  long 
conflict  with  unenlightened  public  sentiment,  a  triumph 
over  prejudices  which  have  had  no  analogy  in  the  other 
ways  of  our  life.  The  first  dawn  of  this  moral  revo- 
lution  was  in  Massachusetts;  and  the  civilized  world 
concedes  the  tact  by  adopting  the  example.  jVhen  free 
education  for  both  sexes,  as  a  municipal  duty  to  be 
enforced  by  law,  became  here  the  public  interpretation 
of  State  obligation,  the  finger  of  transfiguration  touched 
the  destiny  of  woman ;  nor  can  any  reaction  ever  set  it 
back.  Gov.  Bullock  cited  some  interesting  facts  from 
his  own  experience  in  the  gubernatorial  office,  as  to  the 
bestowment  of  State  aid  to  the  cause  of  female  educa- 
tion. 


498  WOMEtf  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

"  The  work  has  been  reciprocal.  If  the  State  has 
done  something  for  the  education  of  woman,  she  has 
already  more  than  repaid  the  favor  by  what  she 
has  done  towards  educating  the  State.  Women  now 
constitute  nine-tenths  of  the  whole  corps  of  public 
instructors  in  the  State ;  they  fill  the  same  office  in 
the  normal  schools,  in  all  the  high  schools,  in  all  the 
higher  seminaries;  in  short,  they  are  supreme  every- 
where in  our  education,  save  in  the  technical  and 
classical  schools  and  the  .colleges.  No  change  so 
broad  and  radical  as  this  has  been  witnessed  in  any 
other  field  of  social  science  in  modern  time.  '  For  the 
future,'  says  Gov.  Bullock,  '  our  citizenship,  our  magis- 
tracy, our  history,  is  under  their  hands.'  And  he 
thinks  that,  in  view  of  the  corrupt  tendencies  of  our 
politics,  which  can  only  be  thoroughly  eradicated  in 
the  coming  generation,  this  work  could  not  be  in  better 
hands. 

"  A  cheering  result  of  this  progress  is,  that  woman 
is  esteemed  and  reverenced  more  highly  than  ever,  be- 
cause she  is  reverenced,  not  for  any  idealized  or  ima- 
gined qualities,  but  exactly  for  what  she  is,  —  for  her- 
self." 

The  press  everywhere  is  acknowledging  the  value 

of  education  for  woman.      TheJifiospel-JBanner  "  of 

JVIaine  has  the  following  sympathetic  reference  to  the 

great  facts  of  the  age,  concerning  woman.     The  editor, 

Dr.  Quinby,  says :  — 

"  Within  the  last  twenty  years  great  advancement 
has  been  made  in  the  thorough  education  of  women ; 
and,  though  there  are  many  persons  in  society  who 
frown  upon  the  prominence  this  question  is  assuming, 


WOMEN  EDUCATORS.  499 

no  person  of  intelligence  would  consent  that  society 
should  fall  back  to  the  views  and  customs  of  former 
times.  Under  the  prevailing  facts  and  opinions,  the 
following,  which  we  cut  from  a  New  York  exchange, 
is  every  word  true :  — 

"There  is  special  need  at  present  for  highly  educated 
women  to  be  the  professional  teachers  of  their  sex. 
Accomplished  women,  cultivated  in  the  schools  by 
wide  reading  and  earnest  thought  and  by  travel,  are 
wanted  now  in  the  colleges  established  for  their  sex. 
These  institutions  are  needed  in  addition  to  the 
ordinary  colleges;  for  woman  requires  not  simply  as 
broad  a  curriculum  of  study  as  the  other  sex,  but  a 
richer  one.  We  do  not  believe  in  submitting  every 
woman  to  the  same  bare  round  of  studies.  The 
aesthetic  side  of  her  nature  must  be  fully  developed 
and  trained.  So,  in  addition  to  the  fullest  opportuni- 
ties, she  must  have  special  privileges.'  " 

America's  first  century  has  not  been  without  able 
and  distinguished  women  educators  worthy  of  their 
fame.  A  few  of  the  chief  among  these  may  be  men- 
tioned. 

MARY  LYON. —  This  famous  teacher  has  been  ably 
portrayed  for  these  pages  by  JULIA  MAY  DARROW, 
herself  worthy  of  a  high  place  among  the  educators 
of  the  century. 

"  In  these  days  of  advanced  civilization,  women  of 
extensive  literary  attainments,  and  sound  culture  of 
mind  and  grace,  are  many ;  but  rarely  is  there  a  charac- 
ter who  so  perfectly  unites  unusual  mental  acquire- 
ments with  a  sense  of  duty  so  strong,  and  love  of 
right  so  controlling,  as  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 


500  WOMEN   OP  THE  CENTURY. 

MAKY  LYON  was  born  in  Buckland,  Franklin  County, 
Mass.,  Feb.  28,  1797.  From  parents  of  exemplary 
piety  she  inherited  a  love  for  religious  instruction  and 
active  Christian  work.  While  quite  young  she  was 
remarkable  for  maturity  of  character:  yet  her  sense 
of  the  ludicrous,  and  power  of  humorous  description, 
rendered  her  always  an  agreeable  companion.  At  the 
death  of  her  father  the  family  were  left  dependent 
upon  their  own  exertions. 

"  Mary's  opportunities  for  early  education  were  lim- 
ited; but  an  unusual  aptitude  for  learning  was  soon 
noticed  by  her  teachers.  She  committed  with  facility, 
and  recited  with  verbal  accuracy.  Not  depending,  how- 
ever, on  genius,  as  minds  less  gifted  are  prone  to  do, 
she  mastered  her  lessons  by  hard  study,  and  applied 
herself  to  them  with  great  assiduity  and  perseverance. 
After  the  second  marriage  of  her  mother,  Mary  and 
her  only  brother  remained  at  the  homestead,  she  taking 
charge  of  the  house,  although  at  this  time  hardly  more 
than  fifteen  years  of  age.  A  year  afterwards  her 
brother  married.  Mary  continued  to  reside  with  him, 
however,  until  1819,  when  he  removed  to  Chautauqua, 
N.Y. 

"  Previous  to  this  time  she  had  occasionally  attended 
school,  and  had  also  commenced  Her  career  as  teacher 
at  Shelburne  Falls.  In  ^he  fall  of  1817  she  entered_the 
academy  at^Askneld.  Here  she  received  encourage- 
ment and  assistance  from  friends  who  recognized  in  her 
a  gem  of  uncommon  brilliancy,  which  only  needed 
polish  to  shine  with  unusual  lustre. 

"  Her  slender  funds  were  soon  expended.  She  was 
about  to  return  to  the  employment  of  teaching,  when 
the  trustees  of  the  academy  offered  her  the  free  use  of 
all  its  advantages.  This  offer  she  gladly  accepted,  and 


WOMEN  EDUCATORS.  601 

prosecuted  her  studies  with  so  much  eagerness  that  she 
hardly  allowed  herself  needful  rest.  Her  services  as  a 
teacher  were  soon  much  sought.  These  invitations  she 
at  different  times  accepted.  The  money  obtained  in 
this  way  was  devoted  to  procuring  instruction  on  sub- 
jects in  which  she  was  especially  deficient.  _In_JLS^l_ 
J^  in  Byfield. 


AtTthis  time  her  mind  was  active  and  powerful,  bnt 

undisciplined.     Previous  to  enjoying  the  instruction  of 
Mr.  Emerson,  tl^mtejlecjbjrather  than  the 


engaged  Miss  Lyon's  attention  :  from  him  she  learned 
that  each  should  receive  its  due  proportion  of  cultiva- 
tion. 

««  In  1822  she  was  invited  to  assist  Miss  Z.  P.  Grant 
in  the  Adams  Academy  at  Deny,  N.H.  As  the  school 
year  did  not  include  the  winter,  Miss  Lyon  returned 
late  in  the  fall  to  Bucldand,  and  there  opened  a  small 
school.  She  had  at  this  time  gained  such  a  reputation 
that  many  of  the  teachers  in  the  common  schools 
embraced  the  opportunity  to  profit  by  her  instruction. 
About  1830  she  began  to  consider  the  plan  of  founding 
a  permanent  female  seminary  ;  and  from  this  time  the 
ways  and  means  to  the  accomplishment  of  this  object 
occupied  the  chief  place  in  her  heart.  This  institution, 
as  stated  by  Miss  Lyon,  was  *  designed  exclusively  for 
older  young  ladies  preparing  to  teach,  and  soon  to  go 
forth,  and  exert  an  influence  in  a  variety  of  ways  on 
the  cause  of  education  and  religion.'  It  was  first  pro- 
posed to  locate  the  school  at  Arnherst,  where  suitable 
buildings  had  just  been  vacated,  and  could  be  obtained 
at  a  reasonable  price  ;  but  those  to  whom  the  matter 
was  intrusted  could  see  no  way  of  raising  the  sum 
necessary  for  the  purchase.  In  the  face  of  adverse  cir- 
cumstances, Miss  Lyon  still  continued  to  plan  and 
arrange. 


502  WOMEN  OP  THE   CENTURY. 

"  In  the  fall  of  1834  she  gave  up  her  connection 
with  Miss  Grant  at  Ipswich,  and  set  herself  apart  tc 
the  fulfilment  of  her  great  purpose. 

"  At  this  time  she  was  thirty-seven,  in  good  health, 
and  with  faith,  courage,  and  enthusiasm  unbounded. 
Not  a  man  of  wealth  had  as  yet  given  her  countenance 
and  aid.  Even  the  religious  press  had  on  several 
occasions  refused  to  publish  articles  setting  forth  the 
plan  and  principles  of  the  proposed  institution.  But 
sl.e  was  not  wholly  alone.  A  few  who  had  known  her 
long  and  well,  relying  on  her  understanding,  energy, 
and  benevolence,  gave  her  their  influence.  Sept.  6, 
1834,  a  few  gentlemen  met  ai;  TpawichJ;o  consider  the 
plan  of  founding  a  seminary  upon  a  basis  embracing 
her  favorite  .views.  After  much  consideration,  the 
committee  decided  to  depend  for  funds  upon  the  free- 
will offerings  of  an  enlightened  Christian  public.  The 
question  of  location  was  settled  that  winter.  Several 
towns  had  offered  generous  subscriptions  if  the  seminary 
should  be  located  within  their  limits.  The  final  de- 
cision was  in  favor  of  Sonfo  TTa^j^y^  The  act  of 
incorporation  passed  the  Legislature  Feb.  10,  1836. 

"  The  corner-stone  was  laid  Oct.  3  of  the  same  year. 
The  cost  of  the  first  edifice  was  estimated  at  fifteen 
thousand  dollars ;  and  it  was  to  furnish  home  accom- 
modations for  about  eighty  students  with  their  teachers. 
Miss  Lyon  undertook  the  business  of  obtaining  the 
funds  for  furnishing  the  building.  Nov.  8,  1837.,  waa^ 
advej*tis©€t~fts-  the  day~£or~fche  opening  of-Jthe_school ; 
and,  soon  after  that  date,  more  than  the  prescribed 
number  came  together. 

"The  domestic  arrangements  were  peculiar  in  two 
respects.  All  the  pupils  were  obliged  to  board  in  the 
seminary,  even  though  their  homes  might  be  in  the 


WOMEN  EDUCATORS.  503 

Immediate  vicinity.  Again,  the  work  of  the  family 
was  performed  by  the  young  ladies.  This  lessened 
their  expenses,  and  also  gave  the  institution  a  greater 
degree  of  independence.  The  first  year  was  not  with- 
out its  trials ;  but  the  success  of  the  new  idea  was  fully 
established  and  demonstrated  when,  the  next  August, 
the  anniversary  exercises  occurred,  and  the  first  gradu- 
ates received  their  diplomas.  The  school  gained  in 
numbers  and  advantages ;  and,  while  a  high  standard 
of  scholarship  was  especially  sought,  yet  a  true  religious 
culture  was  acknowledged  to  be  the  only  firm  founda- 
tion for  womanly  character. 

"  For  twelve  years  Mary  Lyon  lived  to  enjoy  the 
fruits  of  her  enterprise,  and  see,  each  year,  her  pupils 
leave  the  seminary  prepared  for  active,  influential  lives. 
March  5, 1849,  she  died  of  congestion  of  the  brain ;  and 
her  remains  rest  within  the  shadow  of  the  building  that 
stands  a  monument  to  her  life  of  ceaseless  activity  and 
consecration  to  the  advancement  of  Christ's  kingdom. 
The  words  graven  on  the  stone  which  marks  her  rest- 
ing-place reveal  the  ambition  that  led  her  by  a  way  so 
perplexing  to  a  success  so  complete  :  '  There  is  nothing 
in  the  universe  that  I  fear,  but  that  I  shall  not  know 
all  my  duty,  or  shall  fail  to  do  it.'  The  fundamental 
ideas  of  the  founder  have  since  her  death  been  cherished 
principles  of  the  school.  Its  advantages  have  kept 
pace  with  the  progress  of  the  times.  Many,  obeying 
a  divine  impulse,  have  devoted  their  lives  to  spreading 
the  gospel  in  pagan  lands.  Branch  institutions  have 
sprung  from  the  parent  vine  at  Kalamazoo,  Mich., 
Oxford  and  Painesville,  O.,  South  Africa,  Persia,  and 
Turkey. 

"  New  colleges  and  institutions  yearly  add  to  woman's 
opportunities  for  advanced  education ;  and,  in  kindly 


504 


WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTTJBY. 


feeling  with  them  all,  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary  will 
maintain  its  past  reputation,  and,  with  constantly  in- 
creasing facilities  for  scientific  and  classical  study,  aim 
at  endowing  each  graduate  with  the  broad  culture  and 
elevated  principles  essential  to  perfect  womanhood." 

CATHERINE  E.  BEECHEB,  daughter  of  Rev.  Lyman 
Beecher,  D.D.,  was  born  Sept.  6,  1800,  at  East  Hamp- 
ton, L.I.,  where  she  resided  till  about  ten  years  of  age. 
Mrs.  Hale  gives  nearly  five  pages  to  a  sketch  of  her 
life  and  some  extracts  from  her  writings.  She  opened 
her  somewhat  celebrated  school  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  in 
1822j  and,  for  the  sake  of  her  own  pupils,  she  pre- 
p"ared  her  first  printed  work  on  Arithmetic.  Her  second 
work  was  on  the  more  difficult  points  of  Theology ;  and 
her  third,  an  octavo,  on  Mental  and  Moral  Philoso- 
phy. This  has  been  printed,  and  introduced  into  one 
of  our  colleges  for  young  men,  as  a  text-book,  but  has 
not  been  published.  Inl832she  accompanied  her 
father  to  Ohio,  ano^Jn  fiim>mnati  for  two  years  super- 
intended a  scnooTjfor  young  women.^  "  Since  then 
Miss"BeecLuji'lias  been  engaged  in  maturing  and  carry- 
ing into  effect  a  great  plan  for  the  education  of  all  the 
children  in  our  country.  For  this  end  she  has  written 
and  journeyed,  pleaded  and  labored."  A  reference  to 
Mrs.  Hale's  book  will  show  her  plan._^Mj..aa.B.e£cLer. 
is  known  as  a  writer  of  books  designed  to  benefit  her 
sex.  "  Domestic  Economy,  for  the  use  of  Young 

r.fldi^s^HnnipT'a.ri^   ATvi-ng^"  ia  ^m*  nf  fliffijflT1"- 

EMMA  WILLAED  is  among  the  educators  who  should 
be  mentioned  here.  Her  memoir  has  been  written  by 
Dr.  Lord.  She  was  born  in  Berlin,  Conn.,  February, 
1787.  Her  maiden  name  was  Hart.  Mrs.  Hale  says, 
"  The  love  of  teaching  appears  to  have  been  a  ruling 


WOMEN   EDUCATORS.  505 

passion  in  her  mind.  At  the  age  of  sixteen,  she  took 
charge  of  a  district  school  in  her  native  tov/n.  The 
following  year  she  opened  a  select  school,  and  in  the 
summer  of  the  next  year  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
Berlin  Academy.  During  this  period,  being  engaged 
at  home  throughout  the  summer  and  winter  in  the 
capacity  of  instructress,  she  managed  in  the  spring  and 
autumn  to  attend  one  or  other  of  the  two  boarding- 
schools  at  Hartford."  In  1807  she  took  charge  of  the 
academy  in  Westfield,  Mass.,  but  upon  pressing  invita- 
tion went  to  Middlebury,  Vt.,  where  she  taught  a  girl's 
academy  for  two  years.  In  1809  she  married.  In  1814 
she  opened  a  boarding-school  at  Middlebury,  introducing 
new  studies,  and  inventing  new  methods  of  teaching. 
She  was  invited  by  Gov.  Clinton  to  remove  her  school 
to  New  York ;  and  the  governor  recommended  her 
"  Plan  "  for  schools  to  the  legislature  in  his  message. 
"  The  result  was  the  passage  of  an  act  to  incorporate 
the  proposed  institute  at  Waterford,  and  another  to 
give  to  female  academies  a  share  of  the  literary,  fund  ; 
being,  it  is  believed,  the  first  law  ever  passed  by  any 
legislature*  with  the  direct  object  of  improving  female 
education."  This  fact  which  Mrs.  Hale  mentions  is 
of  interest,  despite  her  objectionable  use  of  the  word 
"  female."  The  first  young  lady  who  was  examined  in 
geometry  publicly  in  Mrs.  Willard's  Waterford  acad- 
emy, and  perhaps  the  first  in  the  country,  was  Miss 
Cramer,  afterward  Mrs.  Curtis.  In  1821^  Mrs.  Willard 
removed  her  school  to  Troy^  and  was  abundantly  suc- 
cessful. This  seminary  is  now  always  associated  with 
her  name  and  fame. 

In  1830  Mrs.  Willard  visited  Europe,  and  on  her 
return  published  a  volume  of  travels,  the  avails  of 
which,  amounting  to  twelve  hundred  dollars,  were 


506  WOMEN  OP  THE   CENTURY. 

devoted  to  the  cause  of  educating  girls  in  Greece 
She  gave  the  avails  of  several  other  publications  tc 
the  same  object.  "  In  1838  Mrs.  Willard  resigned  her 
charge  of  the  Troy  Seminary,  and  returned  to  Hart- 
ford, where  she  revised  her  celebrated  Manual  of 
American  History  for  the  use  of  schools.  The  merits 
of  this  work,  her  smaller  United  States  History,  and 
Universal  History,  have  been  attested  by  their  very 
general  use  in  seminaries  of  education.  Since  1843 
she  completed  the  revision  of  her  historical  works, 
revised  her  Ancient  Geography,  and,  in  compliance 
with  invitations,  wrote  numerous  addresses  for  different 
occasions,  being  mostly  on  educational  subjects.  Two 
of  these  were  written  by  request  of  the  Western  Lit- 
erary Institute  and  College  of  Teachers,  and  were  read 
at  annual  meetings  of  the  society  at  Cincinnati,  one  in 
1842,  and  the  other  in  1843.  In  1845,  by  special  invi- 
tation, she  attended  the  convention  of  county  and 
town  superintendents,  held  at  Syracuse.  She  was 
invited  to  take  part  in  the  public  debate  :  declining 
that  honor,  the  gentlemen  of  the  convention,  to  the 
number  of  about  sixty,  called  on  her  at  her  lodgings, 
where  she  read  to  them  a  prepared  address.  The 
principal  topic  of  it  was,  '  that  women,  now  suffi- 
ciently educated,  should  be  employed  and  furnished  by 
the  men  as  committees,  charged  with  the  minute  cares 
and  supervision  of  the  common  schools ; '  reasoning 
from  the  premises  that  to  man  it  belongs  to  provide 
for  the  children,  while  upon  woman  it  is  incumbent  to 
take  the  provision,  and  apply  it  economically  and  judi- 
ciously. These  sentiments  were  received  with  decided 
approbation. 

"In  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  1845,  Mrs.  Willard 
made,   with    great    satisfaction,   an    educational    tour 


WOMEN   EDUCATORS.  607 

through  some  of  the  southern  counties  of  New  York; 
having  been  specially  invited'to  attend  the  institutions 
for  the  improvement  of  teachers  of  the  common  schools. 
At  Monticello,  Binghamton,  0 \vego,  Cairo,  and  Rome, 
she  aided  in  instructing  no  less  than  five  hundred 
teachers  of  these  schools  ;  and  in  many  cases  her  part- 
ings with  the  young  female  teachers  were  not  without 
tears. 

"  The  inhabitants  of  the  places  where  she  went  to 
instruct  teachers,  desiring  to  have  a  share  in  her  visits, 
at  their  request  she  attended  public  meetings  of  both 
sexes,  where  she  introduced  resolutions  which  were 
unanimously  passed  in  the  several  counties,  and  aided 
in  the  debates.  The  object  was,  to  forward  her 
scheme  of  giving  to  the  best-educated  and  most  able 
women  of  the  country,  the  charge  and  supervision  of 
the  village  schools  for  little  children,  especially  of 
those  things  appertaining  to  the  conveniences  of  such 
schools.  That  the  teachers  of  these  schools  should  be 
mostly  females,  is  now  universally  agreed  ;  but,  argued 
she,  while  the  young  women  can  be  the  teachers,  it 
needs  the  matrons  to  aid  in  the  supervision.  .  .  .  Dur- 
ing the  spring  and  summer  of  1846,  Mrs.  Willard  made 
the  tour  of  the  Southern  and  Western  States,  visiting 
every  one  of  them  except  Texas.  In  every  city  she 
met  her  former  pupils,  who  gave  her  a  filial  welcome. 
She  was  received  by  the  principals  of  schools,  and  those 
employed  in  education,  as  an  '  educationalist ; '  and  as 
such  was  invited  to  visit  and  to  address  schools,  where, 
in  many  instances,  she  received  public  testimonials  of 
consideration. 

"  In  addition  to  the  compends  of  history  which  she 
has  written,  she  has  invented,  for  the  purpose  of  teach- 
ing and  impressing  chronology  on  the  mind  by  the  eye, 


508  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUIIY. 

two  charts  of  an  entirely  original  character ;  one  called 
4  The  American  Chronogfaphic  for  American  Histor}^' 
and  the  other  for  universal  history,  called  the  '  Temple 
of  Time.'  In  1849  she  published  'Last  Leaves  from 
American  History ; '  containing  an  interesting  account 
of  our  Mexican  war,  and  of  California.  Mrs.  Willard 
wrote  one  small  volume  of  poetry,  but  is  best  known 
by  her  admirable  hymn  '  Rocked  in  the  Cradle  of  the 
Deep.'  Mrs.  Willard  died  April  15,  1876,  universally 
respected  and  widely  beloved." 

Her  sister,  ALMIRA  H.  LINCOLN  PHELPS,  was  her 
pupil  once,  and  afterward  became  celebrated  as  an 
educator  and  author.  "  At  the  age  of  thirty,  Mrs. 
Lincoln  was  left  a  widow,  with  two  children,  and  with 
two  perplexed  estates,  those  of  her  husband  and  his 
father,  to  settle,  which  she  successfully  accomplished. 
At  that  time  she  began  the  study  of  the  Latin  and 
Greek  languages  and  the  natural  sciences,  and  also 
applied  herself  to  improving  her  talent  for  drawing  and 
painting,  in  order  to  prepare  herself  for  assisting  her 
sister  Mrs.  Willard  in  the  Troy  Seminary,  where  she 
passed  seven  years  engaged  in  alternate  study  and 
instruction.  A  fine  sketch  of  Mrs.  Phelps  and  her 
labors  is  given  in  Mrs.  Hale's  book.  She,  as  well  as 
Mrs.  Willard,  is  mentioned  in  the  chapter  on  '  Women 
Scientists.'  Among  her  published  works  are  courses 
of  lectures  on  education,  a  '  Geology  for  Beginners,'  and 
a  translation  of  Mme.  Necker  de  Saussure's  '  Progressive 
Education.' " 

CATHERINE  FISKE  was  a  teacher  born  in  Worcester, 
Mass.,  July  30,  1784.  She  commenced  her  life  profes- 
sion when  but  fifteen,  and  continued  it  till  her  death, 
May  20,  1837,  a  period  of  thirty-eight  years.  For  a 
number  of  years  she  was  instructor  in  the  public  or 


WOMEN   EDUCATORS.  609 

district  schools;  but  in  1814  she  opened  her  Female 
Seminary  at  Keene,  N.H.,  where  she  presided  during 
the  remainder  of  her  life,  exerting  a  wide  and  salutary 
influence. 

BERENICE  MAY  and  BATHSHEBA  WHITMAN  labored 
over  half  a  century,  as  teachers,  in  Massachusetts. 
May  not  the  writer  here  place  the  names  of  her  earliest 
teachers,  MARY  RUSSELL  (since  the  wife  of  Peleg 
Mitchell  of  Nan  tucket)  and  SARAH  C.  E  ASTON,  now 
deceased?  To  the  latter  lady,  who  was  longest  my 
teacher,  I  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  thorough  instruc- 
tion, which  can  never  be  repaid.  ALICE  MITCHELL, 
SUSAN  (BURDICK)  CHANNING,  and  MARIA  L.  OWEN 
were  also  at  various  periods  my  teachers ;  the  first  in 
her  own  Quaker  private  school,  the  two  latter  in  the 
high  school  of  Nantucket.  In  the  grammar  school, 
for  a  short  time,  I  was  taught  by  Avis  GARDNER, 
LUCY  STARBUCK,  ELIZABETH  (WATSON)  CRANE, 
ELIZABETH  EASTON,  MARTHA  MITCHELL,  all  of  whose 
names  I  take  pleasure  in  placing  here,  as  they  were 
educators  of  uncommon  ability  and  fidelity.  To  other 
instructors  I  owe  much  ;  but  tliey  cannot  be  mentioned 
here,  because  this  is  a  record  of  some  noticeable  women 
of  the  century,  and  they  were  of  the  other  —  usually 
more  favored  —  sex. 

MARTHA  WHITING  was  born  in  Hingham,  Mass., 
Feb.  27,  1795.  She  commenced  teaching -in  her  native 
town  when  about  seventeen.  She  became  the  founder 
of  the  Charlestown  Female  Seminary,  a  Baptist  school 
where  many  noted  persons  have  been  finely  educated, 
among  them  MARY  A.  LIVERMORE,  ABBIE  R.  KNIGHT, 
and  others  who  have  since  been  successful  teachers. 
Miss  Whiting  died  at  Hingham,  Aug.  22,  1853.  Her 
remains  rest  in  Mount  Auburn. 


510  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

ELIZABETH  PALMER  PEABODY  has  already  been 
mentioned  in  the  chapter  on  "  Literary  Women." 
Some  of  her  educational  views  are  expressed  in  A. 
Bronson  Alcott's  book  "  Records  of  a  School."  The 
records  were  really  kept  by  Miss  Peabody,  who  was  a 
teacher  in  Mr.  Alcott's  school.  In  the  preface  to  the 
third  edition,  she  mentions  a  change  in  some  of  her 
educational  plans  or  ideas.  She  is  a  devoted  lover  of 
the  kindergarten  system,  and  has  done  much  toward 
introducing  it  into  the  infant-schools  of  our  country. 

NANCY  B.  SEAVER.—  A  correspondent  of  "  The  Bos- 
ton Journal"  says  of  this  lady,  "I  think  it  only  a 
tribute  due  the  memory  of  a  long  and  faithful  servant 
of  Boston  (Miss  Nancy  B.  Seaver,  who  died  the  8th 
inst.,  aged  seventy-nine  years),  that  public  notice  be 
given  in  the  press.  Many  will  remember  her  with  re- 
spect as  one  who,  for  over  thirty  years,  was  a  public- 
school  teacher  at  the  North  End.  In  all  this  time  she 
was  absent  but  two  weeks  from  her  duties  by  sickness. 
Truly  she  was  a  true  and  faithful  servant  of  the  public, 
having  spent  her  best  days  and  life  in  their  service." 

Says  "  The  Boston  Journal  "  also  of  ANNA  GLOVER, 
"  Many  elderly  people  have  recently  died  in  Stoughton, 
among  them  Miss  Anna  Glover  at  the  advanced  age  of 
seventy-five.  She  was  the  author  of  '  Glover  Memo- 
rials and  Genealogies,'  having  spent  many  years  in 
research,  and  written  more  than  one  thousand  letters 
for  information  concerning  the  book.  It  was  a  great 
undertaking  for  a  person  in  her  feeble  health.  She, 
with  her  sister  Eleanor,  whom  she  survived  but  a  few 
months,  formerly  kept  a  private  school  for  young  ladies. 
They  were  highly  respected  by  a  large  circle  of 
friends." 

A  friend  furnishes  the  following  sketch  of  CAROLINE 


<;:   I  LJft  . 


WOMEN   EDUCATORS.  513 

A.  CAKPENTER,  lady  principal  of  the  well-known  Lasell 
Seminary,  Auburndale,  Mass. :  — 

Miss  Carpenter  has  just  claim  to  a  place  among  the 
best  women  educators  of  our  girls.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
trace  some  of  the  influences  which  have  made  her  such. 

To  exceptional  natural  talent  a  wise  mother  gave  op- 
portunity by  placing  her  early  in  Mrs.  Emma  Willard's 
school  at  Troy,  New  York,  which  represented  at  the 
time  the  most  advanced  ideas  in  the  higher  education  of 
women. 

Mrs.  Willard  inspired  her  pupils  to  do  good  work  in 
school,  and  to  take  up  life  afterwai'd  with  high  purpose, 
courage,  and  patience.  She  was  withal  an  elegant  and 
accomplished  lady,  with  fine  feminine  gifts  of  insight 
and  foresight,  who  left  some  likeness  to  herself  on  many 
o"  her  pupils.  Miss  Carpenter  has  these  qualities  in 
!»•  rge  measure  :  the  intellectual  integrity,  executive  abil- 
ity, and  physical  poise  which  give  power. 

Until  the  death  of  her  father,  in  1871,  Miss  Carpenter 
conducted  a  piivate  school  at  Saratoga  Spa,  her  native 
place.  Soon  after  she  came  with  her  lovely  mother — 
whose  gentle  ways  and  silver  hair  add  much  to  the  home- 
air  of  the  place  —  to  her  present  position  in  Lasell  Sem- 
inary. 

Through  years  of  care  and  work,  such  as  prove  for 
most  teachers  "  exhausting,"  she  has  kept  perfect  health, 
a  steady,  cheerful  spirit,  and  the  courage  of  youth.  By 
study  at. home,  avid  vacations  well  filled  abroad,  she  has 
kept  abreast  with  the  improving  methods  of  teaching 
and  with  the  progress  of  knowledge  in  her  own  lines  of 
work.  In  every  emergency  of  a  large  girls'  school  she  is 
a  reserve  of  strength :  in  discipline  firm  ;  in  perplexity 
self-possessed  ;  in  personal  character  and  influence  main- 
taining always  the  freshness  of  an  ever-assimilating  and 
deepening  life. 


514  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

Claiming  for  herself  no  personal  recognition,  the  mem- 
ory of  pupils  clings  gratefully  about  such  a  teacher  as 
experience  of  life  reveals  the  value  of  her  work,  and  she 
seems  to  them  unselfish,  devoted,  and  very  faithful.  So 
Providence  illumines  and  exalts  the  abiding  work,  and 
gives  it  a  manifold  reward  in  human  character.  The 
influence  of  a  noble  woman,  an  inspiring  teacher  repeats 
itself  in  every  home.  So  is  Miss  Carpenter  remembered 
and  beloved. 

She  is  now  in  the  tenth  year  of  work  at  Lasell  Semi- 
nary, which  owes  much  to  her  fidelity  and  devotion  ;  and 
the  cause  of  thorough  womanly  education  also  owes  her 
much,  and  has  in  her  a  noble  representative  and  helper. 

ALICE  C.  FLETCHER  has  been  many  years  a  teacher. 
As  the  secretary  of  the  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Women,  she  has  some  prominence,  and  has 
done  valuable  work.  Her  response  to  a  wiuh  for  data 
as  is  follows  :  — 

"  Although  I  have  labored  by  my  pen,  my  voice,  and 
my  executive  powers,  for  the  elevation  of  woman,  and 
the  purification  of  the  race  from  the  sins  of  drunken- 
ness both  of  spirits  and  tobacco,  yet  I  do  not  find  the 
language  of  data. 

"  Your  request  came  to  me  with  the  suddenness  of 
the  vision  to  Abou  Ben"  Adhem,  and  like  him  I  can 
only  say  from  my  heart,  '  Write  me  as  one  who  loves ' 
her  fellow-women." 

"  The  New  York  Tribune  "  thus  refers  to  a  veteran 
teacher :  — 

"  The  death  is  announced  at  Cleveland  of  Miss 
ALMEDA  BOOTH,  who  for  thirty  years  has  been  a  teacher 


WOMEN  EDUCATORS.  516 

in  Northern  Ohio,  and  who  was  for  a  long  time  the 
lady  principal  of  Hiram  College.  There  is  something 
peculiarly  honorable  in  such  a  career :  it  can  hardly 
bring  the  enduring  fame  or  even  the  material  reward 
which  most  toilers  seek  for,  but  it  is  extremely  labo- 
rious as  well  as  responsible.  If  we  consider  how  many 
pupils  have  been  under  the  guidance  of  this  lady  at 
the  critical  period  of  their  lives,  how  many  characters 
she  has  been  instrumental  in  forming  and  rounding, 
into  how  many  homes  she  has  sent  good  mothers,  and 
into  how  many  schools  good  teachers,  how  many  lives 
she  has  made  successful  by  guarding  their  early  cul- 
ture, how  much  intellectual  progress  her  training  has 
made  possible,  of  how  many  hundreds  she  has  been — if 
we  may  say  so  —  the  real  mother,  we  shall  then  begin  to 
comprehend  the  nobility  of  her  vocation.  So  many 
teach  only  for  a  time,  —  men  until  they  can  prepare 
themselves  for  something  else,  women  until  they  can 
marry,  —  that  instances  of  lifelong  devotion  to  school- 
keeping,  though  by  no  means  rare,  are  not  so  common 
as  they  should  be.  For,  after  all,  teaching  is  a  busi- 
ness to  grow  into,  nor  can  it  be  well  done  unless  it  is 
loved  by  the  doer.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  evident  that  the  subject  of  education  has  very 
fast  hold  of  the  American  mind ;  but  we  are  all  better 
assured  of  its  importance  than  of  the  methods  by  which 
it  should  be  conducted.  In  the  discussions  to  which 
the  religious  question  has  given  rise,  we  are  surprised 
that  so  little  should  be  said  of  the  teacher's  position, 
and  that  apparently  so  little  is  left  to  the  teacher's  dis- 
cretion. .  .  . 

"  Once  for  all,  let  it  be  understood  that  teaching  is 
not  like  street-paving  or  house-building,  or  other  mat- 
ter of  contract ;  that  teachers  are  not  hired  just  to  give 


516  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

lessons  in  geography  and  grammar  according  to  sys- 
tems approved  by  those  who  hire  them ;  that  teaching, 
if  it  be  real,  is  a  contact  of  mind,  with  mind  and  heart 
with  heart ;  or,  to  use  Dr.  Webster's  explanation,  that 
it  is  '  sending,  passing,  communicating,  leading,  draw- 
ing.' 

"  Clearly,  if  more  teachers  were  what  they  should  be, 
and  the  confidence  of  the  public  in  them  what  it  should 
be,  half  our  difficulties  would  at  once  vanish.  The 
clever  and  accomplished  head  of  a  well-established  pri- 
vate school  does  as  he  pleases :  he  reads  the  Bible  to 
his  scholars,  or  he  omits  the  reading,  as  he  thinks  fit ; 
he  varies  the  routine  of  his  establishment  according  to 
circumstances  or  to  the  special  need  of  individuals  ;  he 
keeps  no  Procrustean  bed  for  stretching  or  shortening 
God's  image.  Being  free  to  act,  and  in  no  danger  of 
dismissal  by  a  board,  he  imparts  knowledge  in  a  large 
and  liberal  way,4  and  does  not  fear  to  try  occasional 
experiments.  The  teachers  of  public  schools  should 
also  have  something  of  this  honorable  liberty.  Over- 
sight we  well  enough  understand  that  they  require ; 
strict  responsibility  is  what  we  would  constantly  hold 
them  to ;  swift  discharge  be  theirs  should  they  prove 
incompetent  or  unfaithful  in  any  way ;  but  this  need 
not  prevent  them  from  enjoying  a  certain  degree  of 
independence,  nor  from  being  permitted  to  put  their 
own  minds  into  their  own  work.  It  is  a  question 
whether  this  self-reliance  is  sufficiently  encouraged; 
and  yet  without  it  no  teacher  can  respect  himself  or 
his  vocation.  If  he  is  what  he  should  be,  intelligent, 
conscientious,  and  well-informed,  there  is  surely  no 
danger  in  suffering  him  to  have  some  personality  of  his 
own.  He,  at  any  rate,  is  personally  responsible  for  the 
progress  of  those  committed  to  his  charge,  —  responsible 


WOMEN   EDUCATORS.  617 

to  a  higher  Power  than  the  board ;  and  he  should  feel 
that  he  is  at  liberty  to  bring  to  the  work  something 
of  his  own  individuality.  Make  him  a  mere  drill-ser- 
geant, and  he  will  always  be  neglecting  his  duties,  and 
alwaj'S  thinking  of  the  time  when  he  can  afford  to  be 
mustered  out.  But  give  his  mind  a  field  to  work  in, 
and  freedom  to  work,  and  make  his  labor  the  means 
of  his  own  intellectual  progress,  and  he  will  cling  to 
a  profession  which  he  finds  to  be  truly  liberal,  and 
become  an  invaluable  co-operator  with  the  legislature 
in  the  business  of  public  education.  There  would  be 
no  temptation  then  to  fly  away  from  school-keeping 
to  law,  physic,  divinity,  civil  engineering,  or  shop- 
keeping.  Well  paid,  trusted,  respected,  and  in  some 
instances  even  revered,  the  teacher  would  by  his 
example  and  his  suggestions  help  us  to  solve  these 
problems  which  are  becoming  so  troublesome,  should 
they  come  to  vex  us  at  all.  There  would  be  no  ques- 
tion then  of  abandoning  the  whole  system  of  public 
education.  The  sheer  force  and  character  of  those 
engaged  in  it  would  alone  perpetuate  it." 

The  problem  of  employing  women  as  principals  of 
public  schools,  even  of  the  high  and  grammar  depart- 
ments, may  be  considered  solved,  so  many  women 
having  proved  themselves  abundantly  qualified  to  fill 
that  station.  SARAH  J.  BAKER,  a  native  of  Nantucket, 
teaching  in  Roxbury ;  CHARLOTTE  M.  GARDNER,  and 
MINNIE  AUSTIN,  both  natives  of  the  same  island,  the 
one  in  Philadelphia  and  the  other  in  San  Francisco,  — 
have  helped  to  solve  it. 

New  York  City  has  had  such  able  service  from  KATH- 
ERINE  (WHITE)  PERRY,  AMY  B.  BUTTS,  AGNES  BAR- 
TRAM  WASHBURN,  and  others,  as  faithful  teachers,  able 


518  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

to  govern  and  direct,  as  well  as  to  teach  from  books, 
that  the  problem  is  no  longer  doubtful  there.  More 
women  should  occupy  the  place  of  principal,  and  find, 
as  Jersey  City  has  found,  with  MARY  S.  BEAL  in  office, 
that  women  have  ability  in  superintending  as  well  as  in 
teaching.  And  always  they  should  receive  the  same 
salary  as  any  male  teacher  who  occupies  a  similar 
position.  Work  in  quality  and  quantity,  and  not  sex, 
should  limit  the  compensation.  Among  teachers  of 
private  schools,  CHRISTIANA  ROUNDS  of  Maine,  and 
SARAH  R.  SMITH  of  Massachusetts  (the  one  formerly 
a  teacher  in  the  Brooklyn  Poly  technical  Institute,  the 
other  in  State  Normal  School  at  Salem,  Mass.),  should 
be  mentioned.  Their  school  is  in  Brooklyn,  N.Y. 
ANNA  C.  BRACKETT  is  among  the  educational  forces  in 
New  York  City,  laboring  in  her  private  school  and  with 
voice  and  pen  for  the  good  cause.  "  Time  would  fail 
me  to  tell "  of  the  sisters  M.  JENNIE,  LIZZIE,  and  ELLEN 
E.  MILES,  who  have  taught  successfully,  —  the  latter 
fourteen  years,  the  first  named  over  twenty,  —  and  of 
thousands  of  others  who  are  doing  grand  service  to 
the  youth  of  our  land.  The  women  teachers  in  our 
public  schools  are  among  the  most  faithful  and  useful, 
but  are  too  often  subject  to  the  injustice  of  doing  the 
same  work  a  man  teacher  does,  for  only  half  or  two- 
thirds  the  pay.  An  instance  can  be  mentioned  whore 
a  male  principal  received  eighteen  hundred  dollars,  and 
the  female  assistant  only  six  hundred  dollars,  and  it 
could  be  proved  that  her  work  was  double  in  quantity 
and  better  in  quality  than  the  man's ;  and  this  is  only 
one  instance  in  a  vast  number  everywhere  occurring. 
The  second  century  will  show  a  different  state  of 
things;  for  already  women  are  being  placed  on  school 
boards,  and,  when  there  is  political  equality  between 
the  sexes,  justice  will  be  insured. 


WOMEN   EDUCATORS.  519 

A  Boston  paper  thus  refers  to  one  who  has  served  on 
a  school  board :  — 

"Miss  CLARISSA  BUTLER,  of  Groton,  died  in  this 
city  last  Wednesday  after  a  long  illness.  She  was  a 
daughter  of  the  late  Caleb  Butler,  Esq.,  the  historian 
of  the  town.  She  will  be  greatly  missed  by  her  neigh- 
bors and  townsfolk,  as  she  occupied  a  position  of 
remarkable  usefulness.  For  the  last  forty  years  she 
had  been  closely  connected  with  the  local  charities  and 
the  questions  of  public  education  ;  and  she  had  been  so 
capable  in  whatever  duties  she  had  undertaken  that  it 
will  be  difficult  for  any  one  to  fill  her  place.  She 
inherited  her  father's  antiquarian  taste,  and  was  more 
familiar  with  the  history  of  the  town  than  any  other 
person.  At  one  time  she  was  the  preceptress  of  the 
Lawrence  Academy  at  Groton ;  and  of  late  years  she 
has  served  as  a  member  of  the  school  committee,  where 
her  opinions  were  always  justly  treated  with  great 
deference.  She  took  an  active  part  in  the  Groton 
Public  Library,  and  made  her  influence  felt  in  various 
directions  for  the  benefit  of  her  townspeople.  Her  loss 
will  be  felt  in  many  different  walks  of  life.  Apart, 
however,  from  her  cultivation  find  strength  of  mind, 
she  will  be  remembered  best  for  her  conscientious  and 
Christian  life." 

SOPHIA  S.  CORNELL  inaugurated  the  progressive  sys- 
tem of  teaching  geography.  Though  her  books  have 
been  superseded  in  our  public  schools,  they  have  only 
been  replaced  by  others  based  upon  her  plan,  for  which 
plan  she  is  entitled  to  great  credit,  as  every  educator 
knows.  Miss  Cornell  was  born  in  New  London,  Conn. 
She  died  in  Owego,  N.  Y.,  in  1875.  She  commenced 
teaching  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  and  was  for  many  years 
urincipal  of  a  public  school,  but  gave  up  teaching  to 


520  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

engage  in  the  publication  of  her  well-known  series  of 
school  geographies. 

Age  does  not  seem  to  cause  any  diminution  in  zeal 
to  the  lovers  of  learning ;  for  we  are  told  "  One  of  the 
earliest  applications  for  a  place  in  the  School  of  Zool- 
ogy, held  this  summer  at  Cornell  University,  was  from 
a  lady  fifty  years  old,  one  who  has  been  teaching  nat- 
ural history  in  one  of  the  largest  cities  for  thirty  years. 
One  of  the  most  active  and  enthusiastic  pupils  at  the 
Anderson  School  was  nearly  sixty  years  of  age." 

Mention  should  be  made  of  the  colleges  in  our  land 
for  women,  but  for  lack  of  space.  Vassar  College, 
built  and  endowed  by  its  noble  founder  at  a  cost  of 
half  a  million,  has  been  the  only  college  where  woman's 
education  has  been  provided  for  as  liberally  as  in 
colleges  for  men.  The  Smith  College  at  Northampton, 
founded  by  Miss  SOPHIA  SMITH,  bids  fair  to  rival 
Vassar  in  time,  and  be  a  worthy  monument  to  a  worthy 
woman. 

The  following  ladies  form  part  of  the  faculty  of 
Smith  College :  Miss  SARAH  W.  HUMPHREY,  daughter 
of  the  late  Pres.  Humphrey,  is  at  the  head  of  the 
department  of  history  ;  Miss  MARIA  WHITNEY,  sister 
of  Prof.  Whitney  of  Yale,  takes  French  and  German ; 
and  Miss  MARY  A.  HASTINGS,  late  principal  of  Hamil- 
ton Seminary,  New  York,  mathematics.  Mrs.  E.  E. 
ALLEN  is  matron. 

Many  towns  and  cities,  in  New  England  especially, 
have  elected  women  on  the  school-boards.  Of  one 
elected  as  a  supervisor  in  Boston,  "  The  Boston  Jour- 
nal "  says,  — 

"  Miss  LUCRETIA  CROCKER  was  first  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  public  three  years  ago,  when,  by  the 
unanimous  voice  of  the  citizens  of  Ward  11  (now  Ward 


WOMEN  EDUCATORS.  623 

18),  she  was  elected  as  a  member  of  the  old  school 
committee ;  and  the  excellent  judgment  and  sound 
learning  she  displayed  in  all  measures  affecting  the 
welfare  of  the  schools  made  her  a  very  acceptable 
candidate  for  the  re-organized  school-system.  Her 
election  to  the  position  of  supervisor  was  urged  by 
many  of  the  best  citizens  of  Boston  ;  and  it  will  give 
general  satisfaction." 

Wellesley  College  for  women  is  justly  entitled  to 
mention,  and  its  founder,  Henry  F.  Durant,  to  great 
praise.  The  noble  structure  stands  on  the  shore  of 
Lake  Waban,  in  Massachusetts  (named  for  John  Waban, 
a  fellow-laborer  with  the  apostle  to  the  Indians,  John 
Eliot),  and  is  one  of  the  most  elegant,  and  best  arranged 
for  comfort  and  study,  in  the  world.  This  is  believed 
10  be  the  only  college  in  the  world  whose  faculty  is 
composed  wholly  of  women.  "  The  Washington  Chron- 
icle "  of  Nov.  14,  1875,  contains  a  long  and  interesting 
article  concerning  this  college,  from  which  the  follow- 
ing is  taken :  — 

"  The  course  of  study  is  intended  to  be  as  complete 
and  thorough  as  that  at  Harvard,  including  full  courses 
in  the  higher  mathematics,  Lathi,  Greek,  and  the  mod- 
ern languages ;  and,  although  Greek  is  an  optional 
study,  a  large  class  of  young  ladies  have  already  entered 
upon  its  pursuit.  German  is  to  have  the  foremost  place 
in  the  curriculum  of  the  modern  languages;  and  thor- 
oughness of  study  is  to  be  the  aim  of  every  department. 
Systematic  study  of  the  Scriptures  will  be  included  in 
the  course ;  and  Christian  influences  will  be  made 
prominent  in  all  departments.  The  resident  teachers, 
from  the  president  down,  are  women,  though  the  special 
lecturers  will  be  selected  largely  from  the  opposite  sex. 


524  WOMEN  OP  THE  CENTURY. 

Paramount  to  every  other  qualification  in  a  teacher  is 
that  of  vital  piety ;  and  she  must  be  one  who,  having 
consecrated  herself  to  Christ,  will  seek  opportunities  to 
win  the  students  to  a  loving,  trusting  faith. 

"  The  total  number  of  the  faculty  is  twenty-eight,  but 
several  of  the  teachers  have  not  yet  reported.  The 
names  of  those  already  on  duty  are  as  follows  :  — 

"  Miss  Ada  L.  Howard,  president ;  Miss  Mary  Horton, 
professor  of  Greek  ;  Miss  Sarah  Glazier,  of  astronomy 
and  mathematics ;  Misses  Lucia  F.  Clark,  Helen  Stork, 
Catharine  Worcester,  and  Esther  E.  Thompson,  of 
Latin ;  Jennie  Nelson,  of  Latin  and  French ;  Sarah 
Willard,  of  French,  German,  and  Italian ;  L.  C.  Hall, 
of  French;  Bessie  T.  Capen,  of  chemistry  and  mineral- 
ogy ;  Susan  B.  Hallowell,  of  natural  history ;  Sophia  B. 
Horr,  of  grammar,  physical  geography,  and  drawing  ; 
Sarah  P.  Eastman,  of  history;  Frances  Emerson,  of 
history  and  algebra  ;  Ellen  Gow,  of  mental  and  moral 
science,  and  composition ;  Elizabeth  M.  Benson,  of 
arithmetic  and  English  literature ;  Mary  M.  Burnham, 
of  English  literature ;  Gertrude  E.  Randall,  of  music ; 
Mary  Currie,  of  elocution.  There  are,  in  addition,  two 
non-resident  professors  of  music,  Messrs.  Edward  A. 
Paine  and  Charles  E.  Morse,  of  Boston  ;  and  Prof. 
Walter  Smith  will  give  advice  and  lectures  in  the  de- 
partment of  art  education.  Miss  Howard,  the  presi- 
dent, is  a  graduate  of  Holyoke  Seminary,  and  has  had 
much  experience  at  the  head  of  educational  institutions. 
The  administration  of  the  domestic  branches  of  the 
institution  devolves  upon  Miss  H.  A.  Hurd,  the  super- 
intendent, who  was  formerly  in  charge  of  the  Boston 
Young  Woman's  Christian  Association  Home.  She  is 
assisted  by  Miss  Walker.  A  chief  baker,  an  engineer, 
and  a.porter  constitute  the  entire  force  of  the  masculine 


WOMEN   EDUCATOES.  525 

sex  in  the  college  ;  while  eight  laundresses  and  two  or 
three  servants  in  the  kitchen  make  up  the  personnel 
of  the  college,  independent  of  the  pupils.  This  is 
believed  to  be  the  only  college  in  the  world,  of  which 
the  entire  faculty  is  composed  of  women.  The  students 
are  from  all  parts  of  the  North,  West,  and  Middle 
States,  Maryland,  and  Virginia,  and  some  from  Canada. 
The  accommodations  are  for  three  hundred  ;  and  fully 
two  hundred  applications  for  admission  were  rejected." 

By  the  kindness  of  a  friend  the  following  account  is 
presented  of  the  lady  —  Alice  E.  Freeman,  Ph.  D.  — 
who  is  now  (1882)  president  of  Wellesley  College  :  — 

"  Miss  Alice  E.  Freeman  was  born  in  Colesville, 
Broome  County,  N.  Y.,  February  21,  1855,  the  eldest  of 
the  four  children  of  James  and  Elizabeth  (Higley)  Free- 
man. Her  parents  were  bravely  at  work  tilling  the  soil 
and  studying  medicine  together  at  every  leisure  moment. 
She  is,  therefore,  by  an  active  predestination,  the  daugh- 
ter of  both  zeal  and  culture.  Dr.  Freeman,  who  is  now 
in  the  successful  practice  of  his  profession  in  the  State  of 
Michigan,  originally  removed  his  family  to  Pennsylvania 
while  he  completed  his  college  course.  From  this  point 
he  took  them  to  Windsor,  N.  Y.,  a  charming  spot  on  the 
Susquehanna,  whose  natural  scenery  and  admirable  acad- 
emy gave  to  Miss  Freeman  an  excellent  physique  and  a 
good  education.  She  was  already  old  enough  to  share 
the  responsibilities  of  the  household,  and  as  she  developed 
a  love  for  the  higher  branches  of  study  it  was  inevitable 
that  she  should  think  of  ar\d  prepare  for  Vassar. 

"  But  at  this  time  the  University  of  Michigan  opened 
its  doors  to  co-education,  and  at  once  Miss  Freeman's 
resolution  was  taken.  Although  imperfectly  prepared  in 
one  or  two  of  their  more  rigid  requirements,  she  resolved 
to  be  among  the  "  pioneers,''  and  was  able  then  and  after- 
wards to  satisfy  fully  the  severe  demands  of  that  curricu- 


526  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUIiY. 

lurn.  It  is  not  too  high  praise  to  say  that  to  her  is  due  a 
very  notable  share  of  the  great  success  of  that  somewhat 
hazardous  experiment.  Her  simplicity  and  directness  of 
character,  her  thorough  and  womanly  self-respect,  her 
earnest  and  faithful  scholarship,  and  her  large  and  un- 
sectarian  Christian  spirit,  —  all  these  exerted  an  influ- 
ence of  which  it  is  hard  to  estimate  the  value.  That 
her  Alma  Mater,  at  its  recent  Commencement,  bestowed 
upon  her  its  highest  honor  —  that  of  Doctor  of  Philoso- 
phy — by  a  unanimous  vote  of  the  Regents  and  Faculty, 
and  without  any  examination,  is  enough  to  show  the 
merit  of  her  work. 

"  Miss  Freeman  graduated  with  her  class  in  1876,  and 
for  a  year  was  an  instructor  in  the  academy  at  Geneva 
Lake,  Wis.,  teaching  Greek,  Latin,  and  the  higher  math- 
ematics. In  1877  she  became  preceptress  of  the  high 
school  at  East  Saginaw,  Mich.,  and  in  1879  she  was  in- 
vited to  the  chair  of  history  in  Wellesley  College.  In 
November,  1881,  she  became  acting  president,  and  in 
June,  1882,  accepted  the  presidency  of  the  institution. 

*'  By  those  who  know  her  best  Miss  Freeman  is  espe- 
cially esteemed  for  her  quick  sympathies,  her  sincere 
enthusiasm,  her  devotion  to  the  cause  of  higher  education 
among  women,  her  capacity  and  courage  in  carrying  out 
her  convictions,  and  particularly  for  a  most  lovely  and 
Christian  charity,  which  creates  an  atmosphere  of  purity 
and  earnestness  throughout  all  her  work.  The  only 
limit  to  her  own  self-sacrificing  energy  appears  to  be  her 
physical  strength.  She  is  yet  too  young,  however,  to 
fail  of  that  flexibility  and  adaptation  of  thought  and 
force  which  should  make  her  duties  still  easier  to  her  in 
the  years  which  are  to  come.  The  words  of  Lowell's 
poem  are  peculiarly  descriptive  of  her  :  — 

"  '  She  doeth  little  kindnesses, 
Which  most  leave  undone,  or  despise ; 


WOMEN  EDUCATOKS.  527 

For  naught  that  sets  one  heart  at  ease, 
And  giveth  happiness  or  peace, 
Is  low-esteemed  in  her  eyes.' " 

Though  much  is  left  unwritten  that  perhaps  ought 
to  find  place  here,  this  chapter  must  now  close  with  an 
article  from  '  The  Liberal  Christian,'  on  "  Woman  and 
Education  in  the  West:  "  — 

"  A  clever  woman  tells  the  readers  of  *  The  New 
Century  for  Woman '  how  her  hitherto  much-abused 
and  restricted  sisters  are  rapidly  and  successfully  en- 
croaching upon  the  pedagogic  territory  until  recently 
occupied  almost  exclusively  by  « second-grade  men.' 
Her  letter,  which  we  print  nearlv  in  full,  bristles  with 
telling  facts. 

"  '  The  West  is  bending  all  her  energies  toward  the 
solution  of  the  educational  problem.  Iowa  took  the 
lead  five  years  ago  in  appointing  a  woman  as  superin- 
tendent of  schools.  To-day  that  State  has  ten  counties 
superintended  by  women,  while  Illinois,  swift  to  follow 
a  wise  departure,  has  eleven.  One  of  these,  MAEY 
ALLEN  WEST,  was  formerly  an  editorial  writer  in  Phila- 
delphia. She  is  liberally  endowed  with  common  sense 
(a  somewhat  rare  talent),  and  is  an  able  member  of  the 
corps.  All  of  these  women  are  doing  good  work  under 
a  severe  test ;  for  the  duties  of  a  superintendent,  in  a 
large  county  whose  towns  are  scattered,  are  by  no 
means  light.  A  gentleman  who  canvasses  the  educa- 
tional field  of  the  North-west,  and  is  acquainted  with 
the  workers  and  their  work,  assures  me  that  the  women 
filling  these  positions  are  more  earnest,  more  faithful, 
and  more  able,  than  the  men  in  similar  places.  Of 
course  only  the  strongest  women  secure  these  appoint- 
ments, so  slow  is  prejudice  in  yielding  to  policy.  Hith- 
erto an  inferior  grade  of  ability  has  been  tolerated,  if 


528  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

only  it  were  clothed  in  the  traditional  broadcloth. 
But  sentiment  is  rapidly  changing.  Square  pegs  are 
being  put  into  square  holes,  and  second-grade  men  are 
being  quietly  replaced  by  first-grade  women.  So  large 
a  town  as  Bloomington,  in  this  State,  has  had  the  wis- 
dom to  secure  the  best  talent  in  the  market  by  electing 
for  its  superintendent  of  schools  Miss  SARAH  E.  RAY- 
MOND. One  who  knows  assures  me  that  the  schools 
are  in  fine  condition  under  the  new  regime.  Daven- 
port, Io.,  has  also  put  her  schools  into  the  hands  of 
a  woman.  These  towns  are  clear-eyed  enough  to  see 
that  they  are  getting  a  better  article  for  their  money. 
With  similar  wise  economy,  Chicago  has  placed  her 
twenty  primary  schools  under  the  charge  of  women. 
These  average  five  hundred  pupils  each,  while  several 
number  over  one  thousand.  Two  of  the  large  gram- 
mar schools  have  been  finely  conducted  by  women  prin- 
cipals for  several  years ;  and,  to  the  credit  of  Chicago 
be  it  stated,  the  salaries  paid  were  determined  by  the 
work,  and  not  by  the  sex,  of  the  workers. 

"  « Women  have  enjoyed  a  monopoly  of  the  graces  of 
humility  and  submission.  They  have  been  "  impoged 
upon  "  until  it  has  become  unfeminine  to  challenge  a 
decent  foothold  in  the  world  of  work.  Co-education 
and  liberal  training  are  putting  things  upon  a  different 
basis.  The  Chicago  University  has  had  a  part  both  in 
the  wrongs  and  the  lightings  that  tread  so  closely  upon 
each  other's  heels  in  this  age.  Until  two  years  ago  the 
institution  restricted  its  privileges  to  young  men. 
Among  the  instructors,  however,  were  two  ladies,  the 
daughters  of  the  eminent  Greek  scholar,  Prof.  James 
R.  Boise.  One  of  these,  a  graduate  of  Ann  Arbor  and 
a  remarkably  fine  Greek  scholar,  was  her  father's  chosen 
assistant.  The  other,  as  the  result  of  long  and  special 


WOMEN  EDUCATOES.  529 

training  both  at  home  and  abroad,  excelled  in  German 
and  French,  and  taught  those  branches  in  the  Univer- 
sity. These  two  women,  although  they  did  excellent 
work  for  years,  and  helped  in  no  slight  degree  to  build 
up  the  reputation  of  the  college  for  thorough  linguistic 
training,  were  not  only  paid  at  starvation  rates,  but 
were  also  not  named  in  the  catalogue  with  the  corps  of 
instructors. 

" '  These  women  were  too  genuine  to  push  their  way: 
they  simply  waited  for  slow-footed  justice.  The  elder, 
when  offered  a  degree  by  the  Evanston  University,  said, 
"  No,  I  will  wait  till  my  own  college  sees  fit  to  confer  it 
upon  me."  The  tardy  recognition  came;  the  degree 
was  bestowed,  and  this  year  the  name  of  the  younger 
sister  appears  in  the  catalogue.  It  is  but  a  courtesy ; 
but  it  is  the  index,  let  us  hope,  of  a  larger  justice. 
Women,  the  sensible  ones,  care  less  for  the  titles  than 
for  what  they  represent  in  hard  cash.  Even  at  the  top- 
most round  of  this  profession,  we  need  not  fear  that 
generous  recognition  of  value  received  will  blunt  those 
delicate  graces  which  spring  from  self-denial.  The  old 
catchword  "  demand  and  supply  "  leaps  to  the  front  the 
moment  one  ventures  to  open  this  vexed  question.  Pray 
reconstruct  your  political  economies,  if  they  will  not 
meet  such  a  case  as  the  following. 

"  '  Two  years  ago,  when  the  trustees  of  this  Univer- 
sity levelled  the  barricades,  and  invited  young  women 
to  enter,  a  lady  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  new 
department.  Miss  MARY  E.  CHAPIN,  M.A.,  is  a  remark- 
able woman,  both  in  natural  endowments  and  acquired 
knowledge.  She  has  given  a  lifetime  to  teaching  in 
schools  of  high  grade,  and  is  in  every  respect  the  peer 
of  her  associates  in  this  new  field.  She  is  contented  in 
her  work,  and  hopeful  of  the.  better  day  for  women,  the 


530  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

sign  of  which  she  chiefly  finds  in  the  growing  willing- 
ness and  even  eagerness  of  girls  to  submit  to  the  long 
and  toilsome  training  which  is  the  condition  of  suc'.«ss. 
Her  services  in  this  one  direction  —  helping  girls  to 
the  real  whys  and  wherefores  —  are  invaluable.  One 
cannot  see  her  making  a  rounded  whole  of  her  life 
work,  and  getting  her  meagre  fractional  equivalent  at 
cash  valuations,  without  longing  for  a  new  Adam  — 
Smith  —  to  appear. 

"  '  The  co-educational  test  in  Chicago  is  meeting  the 
warmest  wishes  of  its  friends.  Thirty  young  women 
have  this  }rear  availed  themselves  of  the  chances,  and 
their  scholarship  is  of  high  grade.  As  a  rule,  the  but- 
terflies are  too  fond  of  summer  weather  to  enter  these 
grim  walls.  They  are  fitted  to  bear  neither  the  intel- 
lectual nor  the  moral  strain,  and  in  the  eternal  fitness 
of  things  they  ought  to  stay  away.  A  bright  girl  who 
has  just  entered  upon  the  classical  course  of  this  uni- 
versity said  to  me  a  week  ago,  "  When  we  girls  first 
went  into  the  Greek  class,  the  boys  thought  they  must 
help  us  out  at  the  board;  but  they  have  found  that 
girls  can  learn  Greek,  and  they  are  not  so  officious  as 
they  were."  Several  other  persons  are  "  finding  out 
that  girls  can  learn  Greek,"  though  the  world  has 
moved  in  a  circle  since  Sir  Roger  Ascham's  day. 
There  are  ups  and  downs  in  all  sorts  of  progress,  else 
what  a  climb  there  would  be !  and  what  a  tremendous 
backward  lurch  if  there  were  no  valleys ! ' ' 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

WOMEN    PHYSICIANS. 

Harriot  K.  Hunt  and  sister  —  Mercy  B.  Jackson  —  The  Influence  of 
Marie  Zakrzewska  and  the  Blackwell  sisters  —  Clemence  Lozier  — 
Mary  Putnam  Jacobi  —  Susan  Dimock,  and  others. 

"  Such  gifts  are  woman's  priceless  dower:  yet,  sisters  mine,  how  few 
Dare  take  the  precious  burden  up,  and  woman's  true  work  do!  " 

MARY  M.  CHASE. 

"  The  beloved  physician."  —  COL.  iv.  14. 

WHEN  speaking  of  Mrs.  Hill's  school  for  girls  in 
Athens,  Greece,  Mrs.  Hale  very  sensibly  says, 
"  Only  one  branch  — an  important  one —  of  instruction 
needs  to  be  added  to  make  the  system  of  Mars  Hill 
complete,  —  that  of  preserving  health.  Women  are  the 
natural  guardians  of  infancy :  they  should  be  carefully 
instructed  in  medical  science.  Anatomy,  physiology, 
hygiene,  are  studies  more  appropriate  to  their  condi- 
tion and  duties  than  to  those  of  men.  That  the  one  sex 
has  monopolized  all  the  knowledge  on  this  science  is  no 

531 


532  WOMEN   OP  THE  CENTURY 

reason  they  should  continue  to  hold  it,  any  more  than, 
because  the  old  Greek  philosophers  taught  only  by  lec- 
tures, therefore  books  should  be  thrown  aside.  The 
art  of  printing  has  opened  the  temple  of  learning  to 
woman  ;  every  year  is  giving  new  and  unquestionable 
proofs  that  she  is  the  heaven-appointed  help  of  man  in 
all  that  really  improves  the  race.  Health  is  one  of  the 
first  earthly  blessings :  it  is  necessary  to  the  best  devel- 
opment of  the  soul,  as  well  as  the  body  ;  let  the  art  or 
science  which  teaches  how  to  preserve  it  and  to  restore 
it  be  taught  to  those  who  are  watchers  by  the  cradle 
of  infancy,  and  soothers  by  the  couch  of  suffering. 
The  whole  East,  Mohammedans  as  well  as  Christians, 
might  be  reached  by  the  ministry  of  pious  female 
physicians  of  their  own  sex.  The  important  practice 
of  midwifery  has  never  passed  into  the  hands  of  men 
in  the  land  where  the  son  of  a  midwife  was  the  wisest 
heathen  philosopher  who  has  ever  appeared.  The 
greatest  benefaction  the  mission  at  Athens  could  now 
confer  on  humanity  would  be  to  educate  female  physi- 
cians, into  whose  hands  might  be  given  the  care  of 
women  and  children." 

That  benefaction  the  world  is  receiving  from  the 
various  medical  colleges  in  America  now  open  to 
women ;  and  all  over  our  land  there  are  now  scattered 
educated  women  physicians  who  are  doing  successfully 
the  work  they  have  been  appointed  by  God  to  do  ;  for 
it  is  in  the  ordering  of  a  wise  Providence  that  women 
should  have  physicians  of  their  own  sex,  and  that  chil- 
dren should  be  cared  for  by  the  natural  care-takers  of 
the  little  ones,  who  with  motherly  aptness  can  pre- 
scribe according  to  their  varied  needs.  The  first  woman 
who  obtained  the  degree  of  M.D.  in  our  country  was 
ELIZABETH  BLACKWELL.  She  was  born  in  England, 


WOMEN  PHYSICIANS.  638 

it  is  true,  but  came  to  this  country  when  about  eleven 
years  old,  and,  since  her  example  has  proved  such  a 
stimulus  to  so  many  women,  is  deserving  high  place  in 
a  record  of  the  women  of  our  first  century.  In  1843 
she  first  resolved  to  be  a  physician ;  and  after  studying 
Greek,  Latin,  &c.,  in  1845  she  went  to  North  Carolina, 
where  she  taught  French  and  music,  and  read  medicine 
with  Dr.  John  Dickson.  She  then  went  to  Charleston, 
S.C.,  where  she  taught  music,  and  read  industriously 
under  Dr.  S.  H.  Dickson,  since  a  professor  of  practice 
in  the  University  of  New  York.  In  1847  she  came  to 
Philadelphia,  for  the  same  study.  That  summer  Dr. 
J.  M.  Allen,  professor  of  anatomy,  afforded  her  excel- 
lent opportunities  for  dissection  in  his  private  ana- 
tomical rooms.  The  winter  following,  she  attended 
her  first  full  course  of  lectures  at  Geneva,  N.Y.  The 
next  summer  she  resided  at  the  Blockley  Hospital, 
Philadelphia,  where  she  had  the  kindest  attentions 
from  Dr.  Benedict,  the  principal  physician,  and  the 
very  large  range  for  observation  which  its  great  variety 
and  number  of  cases  afford.  The  succeeding  winter, 
she  attended  her  second  course  at  Geneva,  and  gradu- 
ated regularly  at  the  close  of  the  session.  Her  thesis 
was  upon  ship-fever,  which  she  had  ample  opportuni- 
ties for  observing  at  Blockley.  It  was  so  ably  written 
that  the  faculty  of  Geneva  determined  to  give  it  pub- 
lication. Mrs.  Hale  adds,  "  It  is  in  keeping  with  my 
idea  of  this  story  to  add  that  the  proceeds  of  her  own 
industry  have  been  adequate  to  meet  the  entire  ex- 
penses of  her  medical  education,  — about  eight  hundred 
dollars.  My  purpose  in  detailing  these  particulars  is, 
to  give  the  fullest  notion  of  her  enterprise  and  object. 
She  gave  the  best  summary  of  it  that  can  be  put  into 
words,  in  her  reply  to  the  president  of  the  Geneva  Col- 


534  WOMEN   OP  THE   CENTURY. 

lege,  when  he  presented  her  diploma.  Departing  from 
the  usual  form,  he  rose,  and  addressed  her  in  a  manner 
so  emphatic  and  unusual,  that  she  "was  surprised  into  a 
response.  'I  thank  you,  sir,' said  she.  '  With  the  help 
of  the  Most  High,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  my  life  to  shed 
honor  on  this  diploma.'  " 

And  this  she  has  done,  till  her  name  is  a  synonyme 
for  medical  worth.  In  1849  Dr.  Blackwell  went  to 
Europe,  where  she  visited  hospitals,  being  received 
with  courtesy,  and  continued  the  study  and  practice  of 
her  profession.  She  is  now  in  England  ;  but  her  influ- 
ence is  felt  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  t  Her  sister, 
Dr.  EMILY  BLACKWELL,  has  since  entered  the  medical 
profession,  and  is  now  a  successful  practitioner,  besides 
being  at  the  head  of  a  hospital  and  medical  college  for 
women  in  New  York  City.  These  two  physicians,  the 
Blackwell  sisters,  may  be  regarded  as  pioneers  in  that 
profession,  whose  names  will  be  held  in  grateful  and 
fadeless  remembrance.  Besides  these,  much  credit  be- 
longs to  Dr.  MARIE  ZAKRZEWSKA  for  opening  the 
way  for  women  into  the  medical  profession.  Dr.  Zakr- 
zewska  is  a  foreigner,  but  has  been  many  years  in  this 
country,  and  has  exerted  a  marked  and  beneficent 
influence  among  the  younger  women  of  the  century. 
Her  great  skill  and  success  have  won  renown  for  her- 
self, and  encouraged  many  others.  Mrs.  Caroline  H. 
Dall  has  written  a  sketch  of  this  physician's  life,  which 
is  worthy  a  place  in  every  woman's  library,  and  which 
shows  how  energy  and  perseverance  can  overcome 
obstacles.  In  her  admirable  book,  "  The  College,  the 
Market,  and  the  Court,"  Mrs.  Dall  has  several  pages 
devoted  to  the  subject  of  "  Medical  Education,"  and 
speaks  of  one  college  and  one  hospital  in  Boston  where 
education  is  given,  one  also  in  Springfield,  and  one  in 


WOMEN   PHYSICIANS.  535 

Philadelphia.  There  have  been  since  at  least  two 
medical  colleges  for  women  in  New  York  City ;  and 
there  are  now  hundreds  of  women  doctors  in  our 
land,  earning  incomes  of  from  ten  to  twenty  thousand 
dollars.  A  few  only  of  the  women  physicians  can  be 
specified  here,  and  they,  for  obvious  reasons,  only 
those  best  known  to  the  world,  or  well  known  to  the 
writer. 

Drs.  HELEN  MORTON  and  LUCY  E.  SEWALL  are 
worthy  physicians  in  Boston,  at  the  New  England  Hos- 
pital, where  they  have  been  very  successful.  One  of 
the  most  successful  women  surgeons  in  the  land,  Dr. 
SUSAN  T.  DESIOCK,  after  thorough  preparation  here  and 
in  European  hospitals,  was  drowned  in  the  steamship 
"  Schiller "  on  her  way  to  England.  She  studied  in 
Zurich ;  and  her  graduating  thesis  was  considered  a 
careful  and  scientific  analysis  of  a  difficult  subject.  It 
was  published  in  German  with  this  title :  "  Uber  die 
Verschiedenen  Formen  des  Puerperal  Fieber.  Inaug- 
ural Dissertation  by  Susan  T.  Dimock,  aus  Boston." l 
The  remains  of  Dr.  Dimock  were  recovered  from 
the  wreck  of  the  "  Schiller ; "  and  her  funeral  took 
place  June  4,  1875,  from  the  Church  of  the  Disciples, 
Boston;  the  pastor,  Rev.  Dr.  J.  Freeman  Clarke,  offici- 
ating. Eight  eminent  male  physicians  of  Boston  were 
the  pall-bearers.  "Dr.  Clarke  recalled  with  marked 
eloquence  and  tenderness  the  salient  traits  of  Dr. 
Dimock's  character,  her  gentleness  and  strength,  her 
sweetness  and  cheerfulness.  He  also  read  extracts 
from  a  letter,  narrating  a  few  incidents  of  the  wreck 
immediately  connected  with  the  death  of  Miss  Dim- 
oek.  "  When  last  seen,"  the  letter  said,  "  she  was 
kneeling  on  the  deck,  praying  aloud;  and,  as  she 

1  On  the  Different  Forma  of  Puerperal  Fever. 


536  WOMEN   OF   THE   CENTURY. 

knelt,  a  sea  broke  over  the  vessel,  and  swept  her  with 
a  group  near  her  out  of  human  sight  cr  aid  When 
she  was  taken  from  the  water,  her  face  wore  a  peaceful, 
even  a  happy  expression.  The  inhabitants  of  the  island 
were  touched  by  its  sweet  repose ;  and  the  body  was 
presently  strewn  with  flowers  by  compassionate  men 
and  women.  Even  the  rude  fishermen  who  bore  the 
body  to  the  steamer  which  brought  her  home  felt 
the  same  influence ;  one  of  them  saying,  as  they  left 
the  bier,  'We  laid  her  down  as  softly  as  ever  her 
own  mother  did.'  "  A  free  bed  at  the  hospital  in 
Boston,  where  she  was  the  honored  and  beloved  phy- 
sician, is  established  as  a  memorial. 

Among  the  first,  if  not  the  first,  to  practise  medicine 
in  this  country,  was  Dr.  HAREIOT  K.  HUNT.  Her  auto- 
biographical work  called  "Glances  and  Glimpses" 
is  so  complete  a  statement  of  her  struggles,  that  the 
reader  is  advised  to  peruse  it,  and  excuse  the  Ibrevity 
of  this  notice.  She  was  born  Nov.  9,  1805 ;  and  her 
sister,  SARAH  AUGUSTA  HUNT,  who  was  also  a  physi- 
cian, was  born  Dec.  25,  1808.  Dr.  Harriot  died  at  the 
age  of  sixty-three,  Jan.  2,  1875,  in  Boston,  where  she 
had  spent  her  useful  life.  Mrs.  Lucy  Stone  says  of  her, 
"  She  acquired  a  medical  education  by  private  instruc- 
tion from  Dr.  Nott,  and  commenced  a  practice  nearly 
forty  years  ago,  which  became  so  successful  and 
remunerative  that  she  acquired  an  independent  for- 
tune. .  .  .  As  soon  as  she  had  property  to  be  taxed 
she  felt  so  keenly  the  essential  injustice  of  taxation 
without  representation,  that  every  year,  when  she  paid 
her  tax,  she  sent  with  it  to  the  city  treasurer  a  protest, 
getting  forth  the  principle  that  taxation  and  represen- 
tation are  inseparable,  and  protesting  against  the  wrong 
done  to  all  women  who  were  compelled  to  pay  taxes, 


WOMEN   PHYSICIANS.  537 

and  were  yet  denied  a  vote.  She  continued  this  practice 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  till  the  end  of  her 
life.  Her  practical  example  of  a  successful  business 
life,  always  maintained  with  a  cheerful  spirit,  is  a  good 
legacy  and  lesson  to  all  young  women.  She  will  be 
missed  by  many,  but  especially  by  those  who  sought 
her  advice  as  a  physician,  and  who  were  helped  to 
health,  as  well  by  her  cheerful  spirit  as  by  her  medi- 
cine." 

"  The  Woman's  Journal " l  says,  "  Dr.  ANNA  E. 
BROMALL  of  Chester,  Penn.,  a  graduate  of  the 
Woman's  Medical  College  of  Philadelphia,  has  returned 
from  Europe,  where  she  has  spent  three  years  visiting 
the  hospitals  for  women  in  Paris,  Vienna,  and  London, 
thus  perfecting  herself  in  her  profession,  in  which  she 
bids  fair  to  excel.  She  delivered  this  week,  in  Phila- 
delphia, a  very  interesting  and  lucid  description  of 
the  management  and  nursing  in  the  various  hospitals 
which  she  has  visited." 

The  same  paper  on  the  same  date  referred  to  the  fact 
that  REBECCA  HANNA  was  graduated  at  the  medical 
department  of  the  Iowa  State  University  with  the 
highest  honors ;  and  was  awarded  the  first  prize,  a  fine 
case  of  surgical  instruments,  for  her  specimens  of  sur- 
gical anatomy.  She  went  to  Burlington,  To.,  to  prac- 
tise medicine,  and  applied  for  membership  to  the  Des 
Moines  County  Medical  Association,  but  was  refused 
because  she  was  a  woman. 

CATHERINE  UNDERWOOD  JEWELL,  M.D.,  is  men- 
tioned with  warm  commendation  by  Mrs.  SARAH 
B  URGES  STEARNS  (herself  a  faithful  worker  for 
women  ever  since  the  hour  when,  as  a  young  student, 
she  sought  to  open  the  doors  of  Michigan  University 

1  For  Jan.  Itj,  1876. 


538  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

to  woman,  as  a  lecturer,  writer,  and  philanthropist). 
Dr.  Jewell  died  in  Minnesota,  March  30,  1873.  She 
was  a  graduate  of  the  Woman's  Medical  College  of 
Pennsylvania.  "  She  was  the  dear  friend  and  almost 
constant  companion  of  Dr.  ANN  PKESTON,  who  did  so 
much  for  the  college  during  the  many  years  that  she 
was  connected  with  it  as  professor  of  physiology  and 
hygiene.  Miss  Underwood  was  very  thorough  in  her 
preparation  for  medical  practice.  For  nearly  five  years 
she  continued  her  studies  at  this  institution  and  at  the 
New  York  Infirmary  for  Women  under  the  supervision 
of  Drs.  Elizabeth  and  Emily  Blackwell.  She  was  a 
birthright  Quaker,  and  was  liberal  in  her  religious 
views.  She  practised  for  some  time  in  Bloomington, 
111.,  and  was  there  married  to  Dr.  P.  A.  Jewell  of  Ann 
Arbor,  Mich.,  where  she  practised  till,  robbing  herself 
of  outer  clothing  for  another's  protection,  she  suffered 
from  an  attack  of  pneumonia ;  and  thence  came  con- 
sumption, to  cure  which  she  and  her  husband  removed 
to  Minnesota  in  1867.  But  health  only  came  to  her  in 
a  fairer  clime,  '  the  land  which  no  mortal  may  know.' " 
Dr.  CLEMENCE  J.  LOZIEE,  has  been  very  successful 
as  a  physician  in  New  York  City.  She  was  born  Dec. 
11,  1813,  at  Plainfield,  N.J.  A  sketch  of  her  career 
may  be  found  in  "  Eminent  Women  of  the  Age."  "  In 
1849  she  attended  her  first  course  of  lectures  at  the 
Central  New  York  College,  and  graduated  at  the  Syra- 
cuse Eclectic  College  in  1853,  having  previously  applied 
for  admission  to  several  other  institutions,  and  been 
refused  on  the  ground  that  no  female  student  could 
be  received.  ...  In  1867  she  visited  Europe,  where 
every  facility  was  afforded  her  for  the  inspection  of 
hospitals ;  and  eminent  men  received  her,  and  intro- 
duced her  to  their  associates  with  most  gratifying 


WOMEN  PHYSICIANS.  539 

courtesy."  In  1863,  by  her  untiring  efforts,  a  woman's 
medical  college  was  established  in  New  York.  Dr. 
Lozier  acknowledges  the  great  help  of  Dr.  LYDIA  I?. 
FOWLER,  and  her  husband  L.  N.  Fowler,  with  that  of 
Mrs.  CHARLOTTE  FOWLER  WELLS  ;  but  above  all  she 
speaks  of  being  indebted  "to  an  unwavering  faith  in  a 
present  Saviour,  and  his  constant,  inspiring  love." 

Dr.  HANNAH  E.  LONGSHORE  was  the  first  to  put 
up  her  professional  "  sign  "  in  Philadelphia.  She  was 
born  May  30,  1819,  in  Maryland.  Her  parents  Avere 
Quakers.  She  married  when  twenty-two ;  and,  when 
the  youngest  of  her  two  children  was  four  years  old, 
she  commenced  the  study  of  medicine  with  her  hus- 
band's brother,  Prof.  I.  S.  Longshore,  whose  books  and 
maps,  skeletons,  &c.,  were  at  her  service.  She  was  one 
of  the  ten  members  who  composed  the  first  graduating 
class  of  the  Woman's  Medical  College  in  Pennsylvania. 
She  was  immediately  elected  "  Demonstrator  of  Anat- 
omy," and  served  acceptably  in  that  capacity.  After- 
ward she  delived  lectures  to  women  on  medical  themes. 
She  afterward  relinquished  all  but  private  practice, 
and  in  this  was  remarkably  successful.  Her  sister, 
JANE  V.  MEYERS,  M.D.,  resided  in  her  family,  and 
had  a  large  practice.  An  older  half-sister,  MARY  F. 
THOMAS,  M.D.,  now  residing  in  Indiana,  has  been 
active  and  successful  for  several  years.  "  For  two 
years  Dr.  Thomas  was  editor,  and  for  a  longer  time 
contributor,  to  a  semi-monthly  journal  devoted  mainly 
to  the  cause  of  woman,  published  in  Richmond,  lo. 
-During  the  Rebellion  she  was  occupied  much  in  collect- 
ing and  distributing  supplies  ;  and  a  portion  of  the 
time  her  husband,  O.  Thomas,  M.D.,  and  herself,  had 
charge  of  a  hospital  in  Tennessee." 

Dr.  ANN  PRESTON  was  born  ;n  December,  1830,  in 


540  WOMEN  OP  THE  CENTURY. 

West  Grove,  Perm.,  of  Quaker  parentage.  She  was  a 
professor  in  the  Woman's  Medical  College  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  at  one  time  the  "  dean." 

RACHEL  L.  BODLEY  is  now  the  dean  of  that  insti- 
tution, and  a  fine  lecturer  on  chemistry  to  the  medical 
students,  as  the  writer  can  testify  from  the  evidence  of 
a  delighted  ear. 

Dr.  MERCY  B.  JACKSON,  of  Boston,  is  deserving  of 
high  place  among  the  physicians  who  have  done  pio- 
neer work,  and  helped  to  make  the  path  easier  for  the 
women  who  come  after  them.  She  was  the  daughter 
of  Constant  Ruggles,  Esq.,  and  was  born  in  Hard  wick, 
Mass.,  Sept.  17,  1802.  In  1823  she  married  Rev.  John 
Bisbee,  a  Universalist  pastor  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  and 
afterward  in  Portland,  Me.  In  the  midst  of  his  work, 
her  husband  died  suddenly,  leaving  her  with  two  chil- 
dren to  support.  She  at  once  opened  a  school  for 
young  ladies  in  Portland.  "Superintending  her  house, 
doing  the  sewing  for  herself  and  little  ones,  studying 
French  and  Spanish  with  a  view  to  making  herself 
more  competent  as  a  teacher,  and  giving  lessons  in 
drawing  on  Wednesdays  and  Saturdays,  filled  every 
hour  with  its  special  work ;  and  the  unremitting  toil 
soon  began  to  tell  upon  her  health."  In  1833  she 
married  Capt.  Daniel  Jackson,  and  assumed  the  place 
of  mother  to  his  four  children.  Her  two  made  six  in 
the  family ;  and  to  these  eight  more  of  their  own  were 
added,  making  her  the  mother  and  stepmother  of  four- 
teen in  all.  Mrs.  Jackson  is  a  remarkable  woman,  or 
she  could  never  have  accomplished  so  much  in  caring 
for  the  physical  and  intellectual  needs  of  her  large 
family.  The  time  came  after  her  husband's  death,  and 
the  children  were  old  enough  to  be  left,  that  she  felt 
herself  at  liberty  to  take  a  regular  course  of  study  in 


WOMEN  PHYSICIANS.  541 

the  New  England  Medical  College,  though  she  had  prac- 
tised already  eighteen  years  in  Plymouth,  Mass.  Since 
receiving  her  diploma,  "she  has  been  established  in 
Boston,  commanding  a  large  and  lucrative  practice,  and 
numbering  among  her  patients  some  of  the  first  fam- 
ilies in  the  city  and  the  adjacent  towns.  Too  fully 
occupied  by  her  profession  to  devote  much  time  to  any 
other  work,  Dr.  Jackson  is  an  earnest  sympathizer 
with  the  reforms  of  the  day,  and  a  judicious  friend  to 
her  own  sex.  Every  year  of  her  successful  and  benefi- 
cent life  has  been  an  eloquent  argument  in  favor  of  a 
more  thorough  education  for  woman,  and  her  right  to 
work  in  any  field  of  labor  to  which  she  feels  attracted." 
Long  may  her  motherly  presence  be  felt  among  the 
reformers  of  our  times ! 

Dr.  SARAH  A.  COLBY  was  born  in  Sanbornton,  N.H., 
May  31,  1824.  Her  parents  were  Ebenezer  and  Sally 
Colby,  who  had  eight  children,  of  whom  only  two  sur- 
vived ;  and  both  of  these  are  women  physicians.  The 
intelligent  father  has  "  passed  on  : "  the  excellent  moth- 
er still  lives  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty-four,  her 
mind  as  active  and  her  heart  as  kind  as  ever.  Both 
their  daughters  were  educated  at  the  Sanbornton  Acad- 
emy. Sarah  devoted  some  time  to  teaching,  mean- 
while cherishing  a  desire,  early  felt,  for  the  study  of 
medicine,  which  grew  with  each  passing  year.  She 
was  sometimes  interrupted  in  her  studies  by  ill  health, 
which  gave  her  during  treatment  an  opportunity  of 
observing  that  an  absolute  need  exists  for  noble  Chris- 
tian women  with  strong  judgment  and  large  scientific 
attainment  to  occupy  the  professional  field  as  earnest  co- 
laborers  with  their  brothers  for  the  benefit  of  suffering 
humanity,  and  especially  for  the  help  of  their  own  sex. 

Dr.  Colby  studied  in  Philadelphia,  and,  after  gradu- 


542  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUBY. 

ation,  was  at  first  an  allopathisi,.  but  eclectic  in  prac- 
tice;  yet  within  a  few  years  she  has  j  referred  to 
practise  as  a  homceopathist.  In  a  letter  to  the  writer 
she  says,  "  I  am  satisfied  that  the  principle  of  material 
doses  of  medicine  is  not  calculated  to  develop  the 
higher  spiritual  nature  as  readily  as  a  minimum  or  spir- 
itual dose.  I  really  believe  that  the  materialism  of  the 
present  age  does  more  to  develop  disease,  and  retain  it, 
than  every  thing  else  combined.  Understanding  that  the 
soul,  which  is  substance,  should  control  the  body,  which 
is  matter,  would  do  much  toward  recovering  from  bodily 
ills,  and  be  in  harmony  with  the  teachings  of  Christ, 
and  thus  bring  the  soul  into  spiritual  contact  with  the 
only  fountain  of  life.  *  The  prayer  of  faith  shall  save 
the  sick,  and  the  Lord  shall  raise  him  up '  (Jas.  v.  15). 
To  one  who  comprehends  the  true  philosophy  of  prayer, 
this  will  not  seem  unreasonable.  The  agitation  of  the 
woman  question  has  given  us,  in  many  colleges  of 
learning,  co-education  of  the  sexes,  which  has  advanced 
other  things.  In  the  earlier  years  of  my  professional  life, 
it  was  a  hard  matter  to  find  a  man  physician  who  was 
willing  to  meet  a  woman  physician  on  any  terms  for 
consultation ;  while  during  the  last  five  years  it  has 
not  been  an  unfrequent  occurrence  for  physicians  to 
send  their  wives  and  daughters  to  me  for  treatment ; 
and,  when  the  cases  were  discharged  cured,  I  was  gen- 
erously awarded  high  praise.  I  have  also  been  called 
to  meet  in  consultation  in  Boston  and  other  New  Eng- 
land cities  some  of  the  most  scientific  men  physicians 
of  the  age,  from  whom  I  received  every  courtesy  that 
could  be  tendered  to  a  professional  associate. 

"  I  have  devoted  my  life  since  1859  to  this  great  cause 
of  removing  the  sufferings  of  humanity,  and  therein 
have  been  a  constant  recipient  of  warm  affection  and 


WOMEN   PHYSICIANS.  543 

deep  gratitude.  The  first  ten  years  were"  given  to 
family  practice,  and  the  remaining  ones  to  office  prac- 
tice, except  in  cases  of  special  favor.  I  feel  that  my 
life-work  is  still  largely  in  the  future. 

"  My  sister,  Mrs.  ESTHER  W.  TAYLOR,  M.D.,  was  born 
two  years  later  than  myself,  in  the  same  town ;  educa- 
tion, &c.,  much  the  same.  In  early  life  she  married  N. 
F.  Taylor,  Esq.,  of  Cambridgeport,  Mass.  They  have 
one  child,  a  daughter,  now  Mrs.  George  Huston  of 
Freeport,  111.  When  Mrs.  Taylor  decided  to  study 
medicine,  she  was  nobly  seconded  in  her  efforts  by 
her  husband  and  daughter.  She  graduated  from  the 
HomcEOpathic  Medical  College  of  Chicago,  Feb.  22, 
1872.  In  1875  she  became  a  member  of  the  American 
Institute  of  Homoeopathy  and  the  Homoeopathic  State 
Medical  Society  of  Illinois.  She  has  a  large  and  suc- 
cessful practice  in  Freeport,  111." 

Dr.  Colby's  pleasant  office,1  as  the  writer  is  well 
aware,  is  often  thronged  with  patients ;  and  her  success 
in  cases  that  have  come  under  my  personal  observation 
have  merited  the  praise  and  gratitude  expressed,  as 
well  as  the  pecuniary  recompense  which  each  has  a  right 
to  desire.  Her  attention  and  skill  have  gained  the 
lucrative  practice  which  such  a  "beloved  physician" 
deserves. 

Dr.  LYDIA  A.  JENKINS  (who  has  already  been  men- 
tioned as  a  preacher)  was  a  practising  physician  at  the 
time  of  her  death,  and  with  her  husband,  E.  S.  Jenkins, 
M.D.,  was  conducting  the  Hygienic  Institute  at  Bing- 
harnton,  N.Y. 

Dr.  SARAH  HACKETT  STEVENSON  is  the  first  woman 
admitted  to  the  American  Medical  Association.  This 
admission  was  granted  in  June,  1876.  "  The  Philadel- 
phia Evening  Bulletin  "  of  June  2  says,  — 

1  17  Hanson  Street,  Boston. 


544  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTDKY. 

"  The  doctors  have  combined  millennial  with  centen- 
nial glories.  The  largest  assemblage  of  the  medical 
profession  ever  held  in  America  yesterday  honored 
itself  by  bursting  the  bonds  of  ancient  prejudice,  and 
admitting  a  woman  to  its  membership  by  a  vote  that 
proved  that  the  long-waged  battle  is  won,  and  that 
henceforth  professional  qualification,  and  not  sex,  is  to 
be  the  test  of  standing  in  the  medical  world.  Looking 
back  over  the  past  fierce  resistance  by  which  every 
advance  of  woman  into  the  field  of  medical  life  was 
met,  yesterday's  action  seems  like  the  opening  of  a 
scientific  millennium.  It  was  a  most  appropriate  time 
and  place  for  the  beginning  of  this  new  era  of  medical 
righteousness  and  peace.  Here,  in  the  centennial  year, 
in  the  city  of  brotherly  love,  where  the  first  organized 
effort  for  the  medical  education  of  women  was  made, 
where  the  oldest  and  best  appointed  medical  college  for 
women  in  the  world  is  located,  and  where  the  fight 
against  women's  entry  into  the  medical  profession 
began  and  was  most  hotly  waged,  was  the  place  to  take 
the  manly  new  departures,  which,  so  far  as  the  national 
association  is  concerned,  began  yesterday  in  the  elec- 
tion of  Dr.  Sarah  Hackett  Stevenson  as  a  member  in 
full  standing  from  the  State  of  Illinois. 

"  We  heartily  congratulate  the  association  on  this 
manly  abandonment  of  an  old-time  prejudice ;  and  the 
women,  that,  after  patient  endurance  of  much  tribula- 
tion, they  see  of  the  travail  of  their  soul,  and  are 
satisfied." 

Dr.  Stevenson  is  a  native  of  Illinois,  and  is  proud 
that  she  is  not  only  an  American,  but  a  Western  woman. 
Illinois  gave  her  a  birthplace  at  Buffalo  Grove,  Ogle 
County,  about  thirty  years  ago.  She  graduated  her 


WOMEN  PHYSICIANS.  545 

from  her  State  University  at  Bloomington  about  ten 
years  ago ;  and  gave  her  the  degree  of  a  doctor  of  medi- 
cine in  her  Woman's  Medical  College  of  Chicago,  about 
one  year  ago. 

As  she  was  educated  for  a  teacher,  she  acted  in  that 
capacity  from  the  time  she  graduated  till  five  years  ago, 
always  as  principal ;  and  for  her  services  in  dissection  she 
has  received  the  State  certificate.  Five  years  ago  she 
went  to  Chicago  with  the  purpose  of  adopting  literature 
as  a  pursuit,  and  to  that  end  began  a  course  of  scien- 
tific study,  as  the  scientific  was  the  style  of  writing  she 
preferred.  From  the  elementary  studies  of  anatomy 
and  physiology,  she  gradually  became  interested  to 
know  more  of  the  "  human  form  divine,"  and  so  was 
persuaded  to  take  a  full  medical  course.  Two  of  these 
five  years  she  spent  in  Europe,  visiting  hospitals,  attend- 
ing clinics,  and  a  course  of  lectures  in  biology  by  Prof. 
Huxley.  The  governor  of  our  State  gave  her  a  com- 
mission to  the  Exposition  in  Vienna ;  and  she  spent  her 
vacations  travelling  through  Italy,  France,  Switzerland, 
Germany,  Great  Britain,  and  Ireland.  When  she  re- 
turned to  graduate  in  the  Woman's  Hospital  Medical 
College  of  this  city,  she  was  elected  valedictorian  of 
the  class,  and,  after  graduating,  was  appointed  to  the 
chair  of  physiology  in  the  same  college,  and  attending 
physician  to  the  Hospital  for  Women  and  Children, 
which  positions  she  now  occupies.  She  characteristic- 
ally writes :  — 

"  Though  in  possession  of  two  titles,  professor,  and 
doctor  of  medicine,  I  never  use  either,  only  when  I'm 
obliged  to.  I'd  so  much  rather  be  plain  Sarah  Hackett 
Stevenson,  without  prefix  or  suffix. 

"  The  path  I  have  chosen,  or  rather  that  into  which 
I  have  been  pushed,  is  not  a  path  for  the  ambitious  or 


546  "WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

those  desirous  of  fame.  One  can  spend  a  lifetime  in 
scientific  work  without  being  known  outside  of  his 
immediate  circle.  If  the  amount  of  vitality  which  a 
•surgeon  puts  into  a  single  operation,  or  that  a  physician 
expends  in  '  carrying  through  '  a  single  case,  or  that  a 
physiologist  consumes  in  a  single  lecture  and  experi- 
ment before  his  class,  —  if  the  same  amount  of  energy 
were  coined  into  letters,  and  published  as  literature, 
the  author's  name  would  be  heralded  abroad  by  every 
tongue.  The  greatest  lights  in  our  profession'  are  not 
known,  even  by  name,  outside  of  the  profession ;  and 
yet  is  not  a  scientific,  conscientious  physician  one  of 
the  world's  truest  philanthropists  ?  " 

Very  sweetly  Dr.  Stevenson  adds :  — 

"  As  to  my  religion,  I  was  born  and  brought  up  in 
the  Methodist  Church,  and  expect  to  die  in  it.  My 
parents  were  Episcopalians ;  but  the  Methodist  was  the 
pioneer  church,  and  my  parents  joined  it  rather  than 
be  without  a  home.  I  retain  my  membership  in  the 
same  old  place,  preferring  its  little  homely,  humble 
altar  to  any  thing  I  have  found  elsewhere.  Though 
I  hold  liberal  views  of  Christianity,  and  though  the 
enemies  of  God  have  tried  to  class  me  as  a  materialist, 
probably  because  of  my  studies,  I  still  cling  to  the 
sweet  restful  faith  of  my  childhood.  The  best  place  I 
have  ever  found  was  at  my  sainted  mother's  feet,  when 
I  prayed  '  Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep ; '  and  the  most 
beautiful  vision  of  life  I  have  ever  known,  is  when  I 
believed  that  four  angels  watched  at  the  four  posts  of 
my  trundle-bed.  I  look  with  great  distrust  upon  every 
thing  that  tends  to  rob  humanity  of  its  trust  in  God." 

Dr.  Stevenson  has  not  been  idle  "with  her  pen,  — 
letters,  essays,  sketches,  &c.  Her  book  mentioned  in 
"  Women  Scientists  "  is  not  the  last,  it  is  hoped,  with 
which  she  will  bless  the  world. 


WOMEN   PHYSICIANS.  547 

Dr.  SARAH  R.  ADAMSON  DOLLEY  was  born  March 
11,  1829,  and  was  graduated  in  medicine  Feb.  20, 1851. 
The  following  year  was  spent  in  Blockley  Hospital, 
Philadelphia.  She  was  married  to  Dr.  L.  C.  Dolley 
June  4,  1852,  and  then  removed  to  Rochester,  N.Y. 
During  the  winter  of  1869  and  1870  she  attended  the 
lectures  of  Roget,  Bouchet,  and  Girvaldes,  of  the  H6- 
pital  des  Enfans  Malades,  also  a  special  course  at  the 
Ecole  Pratique  of  the  Faculty  of  Medicine  at  Paris. 
This  year  in  Europe  was  the  first  absence  of  any  length 
after  commencing  practice. 

Her  painful  bereavement  in  the  death  of  her  husband 
the  Gth  of  April,  1872,  followed  by  increase  of  care 
and  labor,  seriously  told  upon  her  health ;  and  she  again 
took  a  season  for  rest  and  travel.  In  both  of  her  visits 
to  Europe  she  has  acquainted  herself  with  the  great 
anatomical  and  pathological  collections,  both  in  Great 
Britain  and  on  the  Continent,  and  has  visited  the  noted 
hospitals,  and  has  made  the  journeys  something  more 
than  seasons  of  rest  and  sight-seeing. 

"  The  Woman's  Journal "  published  a  paragraph, 
probably  from  the  pen  of  Grace  Anna  Lewis,  concern- 
ing her  able  address  before  the  Woman's  Medical  Col- 
lege of  Philadelphia,  where  she  had  been  supplying  the 
place  of  a  teacher  for  a  season,  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  farewell  address  delivered  recently  by  Mrs.  S. 
R.  A.  Dolley,  M.D.,  before  the  Woman's  Medical  Col- 
lege of  Philadelphia,  is  marked  by  unusual  intellectual 
ability.  Its  spirit  is  catholic,  and  will  be  ennobling  to 
women  in  any  vocation.  Mrs.  Dolley  was  one  among" 
the  first  of  the  women  who  studied  and  graduated  in 
medicine  in  America.  Since  that  time  she  has  been 
engaged  in  an  extensive  and  laborious  practice,  gaining 
experience,  mental  vigor,  learning,  breadth,  and  posi- 


548  WOMEN   OP  THE   CENTURY. 

tion,  with  each  succeeding  year.  She  has  illustrated  in 
her  life  every  precept  enforced  in  her  lecture.  Indeed, 
its  value  is  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  it  is  largely  a 
reflex  of  her  own  character  and  experience." 

She  is  a  member  of  the  Monroe  County  Medical 
Society,  and  of  the  Medical  Association  of  Central 
New  York,  and  has  had  through  the  years  kindly  cour- 
tesies extended  to  her  by  physicians  in  consultation ; 
and  patients  are  frequently  sent  to  her  by  the  medical 
brethren.  Dr.  Dolley  modestly  writes  :  — 

"  It  seems  unbecoming  to  speak  of  professional  suc- 
cess, when  my  ideal  of  what  a  praiseworthy  success 
is  continues  so  far  in  advance  of  the  measure  of  my 
best  attainment.  That  my  advice  is  sought  in  obscure, 
grave,  and  serious  cases,  I  may  not  deny,  and  not  only 
by  those  of  my  friends  and  neighbors,  but  by  persons 
from  distant  localities. 

"  My  highest  satisfaction  in  my  profession  comes 
from  the  warding  off  of  impending  evil  or  disaster  by 
judicious  counsel,  or  the  analyzing  of  obscure  or  com- 
plicated or  difficult  cases ;  and  to  me  the  highest  com- 
pliment is  the  rest,  sense  of  security,  and  confidence, 
my  patients  manifest.  It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  my 
services  are  sought  by  intelligent  people,  and  to  be  wel- 
comed to  delightful  social  circles;  for  women  who  essay 
to  do  what  has  been  supposed  to  have  been  question- 
able must  necessarily  demonstrate  to  communities  by 
years  of  patient  toil,  that  their  innovation  is  desirable. 

"  I  never  aspired  to  write  or  teach,  because  the  ability 
of  women  in  these  regards  had  never  seemed  to  me  to 
be  so  generally  questioned,  nor  the  distrust  so  intense 
and  deep-seated,  as  it  has  been  of  their  compassing  the 
ordinary  requirements  of  the  medical  profession,  and 
having  the  persistence  and  patience  required  to  make 


WOMEN   PHYSICIANS.  549 

it  a  life-work.  Whether  they  will  extend  its  useful- 
ness, maintain  its  integrity,  add  to  its  resources,  and 
exalt  the  morale  of  the  profession,  time  alone  can  tell. 

"In  my  student  days,  and  long  before,  my  highest 
ambition  was  to  help  to  open  up  to  women  a  higher 
plane  of  thought  and  labor,  and,  for  myself,  to  be  a 
careful  and  skilful  physician.  More  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century  since,  when  I  first  opened  a  medical 
book,  I  little  dreamed  of  the  possibilities  of  women  of 
this  centennial  year,  when  university  instruction  can 
be  had  in  America,  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany, 
and  Italy;  and  as  little  dreamed  of  their  dangers. 
So  much  remains  for  women  to  do,  that  now  I  am 
111  content  to  have  only  done  the  duties  that  did  lie 
nearest  to  me,  and  what  '  even  my  enemies,  being  my 
judges,'  say  that  I  have  done  in  this  city,  —  made  it 
respectable  for  a  lady  to  practise  medicine;  but  am 
almost  appalled  by  what  I  now  feel  to  be  as  urgently 
demanded  of  women.  It  becomes  a  question  whether 
the  women  who  write  and  speak,  and  who  thus  dispel 
prejudice  and  enlighten  the  public  mind,  are  not  alone 
the  notable  women  of  our  time,  of  whom  future  read- 
ers may  care  to  know ;  and  those  who  only  translated 
in. practice  the  idea  upon  which  we  staked  our  all,  in 
the  assumption  of  the  need  of  women  as  physicians, 
have  necessarily  had  time,  thought,  and  hand  so  occu- 
pied in  the  preliminary  study  requisite,  and  in  the 
daily  round  of  professional  service  that  followed,  that 
we  failed  aforehand  to  ask  if  we  were  wanted,  or  to 
declare  our  convictions  that  we  were  needed  in  the 
profession,  or  even  in  any  way  to  settle  our  sphere 
at  all. 

"The  first  thing  demanded  seemed  to  be  that  we 
must  demonstrate  that  we  could  practise  medicine 


550  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

before  asking  whether  we  might  do  so;  and  the 
thought,  time,  and  skill '  required  to  make  this  possible, 
seriously  interfered  with  abstract  study  and  literary 
acquirement. 

"I  think  it  rather  remarkable  that  the  movement  for 
the  medical  education  of  women  was  not  preceded  by 
any  newspaper  or  platform  agitation."  Dr.  Dolley's 
parents  were  Hicksite  Friends,  but  Huguenot  blood 
mingled  with  that  of  English  Quakers ;  and  she,  being 
disowned  first  for  marrying  one  who  was  not  "  a  mem- 
ber among  Friends,"  afterwards  united  with  the  Con- 
gregational Church,  and  is  at  present  worshipping  in 
her  home  in  Rochester,  N.Y.,  with  the  Presbyterians. 
She  says,  "I  never  fail  to  be  interested  in  the  pros- 
perity of  the  Church  evangelical,  by  whatever  name 
called,  seeing  nothing  hopeful  for  woman,  and  no  true 
elevation,  outside  of  Christian  elevation." 

Dr.  JOSEPHINE  B.  Mix  is  now  practising  in  Chicago, 
having  been  graduated  in  New  York  City,  and  prac- 
tised Avith  success  in  that  city  and  vicinity  for  a  few 
years.  She  was  born  March  16,  1837,  in  Wheeling, 
Va.,  whither  her  parents  had  removed  from  Western 
New  York.  She  is  the  youngest  of  eight  children.  She 
began  her  work  in  life  with  teaching  for  a  short  time, 
acting  as  clerk  in  a  store,  and  using  the  needle  ;  then 
was  married,  and  was  one  among  the  army  of  widows 
whose  husbands  died  for  liberty.  After  various  trials 
and  struggles,  she  commenced  the  study  of  medicine  in 
Philadelphia.  She  decided,  however,  to  attend  the 
Eclectic  Medical  College  of  New  York  City ;  and  holds 
the  first  matriculation  ticket  ever  given  by  that  insti- 
tution to  a  woman,  and  the  fourth  ever  issued  to  any 
student.  Dr.  Mix's  maiden  name  was  Dexter;  and  on 
ber,  father's  side  she  is  a  descendant  of  Rev.  Gregory 


WOMEN  PHYSICIANS.  551 

Dexter,  who  came  to  Rhode  Island  in  1640,  and  was 
the  personal  friend  of  Roger  Williams.  He  was  the 
first  practical  printer  who  came  to  this  country,  and 
was  the  fourth  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Provi- 
dence. Dr.  Mix  is  a  descendant  of  the  eldest  son,  in 
the  seventh  generation.  On  her  mother's  side  she  was 
also  of  Baptist  stock;  for  her  mother's  father  was 
Rev.  Asa  Turner,  a  Baptist  minister  of  Western  New 
York.  For  many  years  she  was  connected  with  the 
same  denomination ;  but  in  1875  united  with  the  Uni- 
versalists,  and  is  now  connected  with  Rev.  Dr.  Ryder's 
church  in  Chicago,  in  which  city  she  is  busily  engaged 
in  a  benevolent  enterprise  and  in  the  work  of  her  pro- 
fession. 

There  must  come  a  close  to  this  incomplete  chapter. 
The  wish  arises  that  some  woman  of  the  profession 
will  yet  prepare  a  large  volume  concerning  women 
physicians,  as  the  author  hopes  to  do  of  the  women  in 
her  own  profession. 

"  The  Galaxy  "  of  December,  1868,  has  an  article  on 
"Women  as  Physicians,"  from  which  the  following 
paragraphs  are  taken.  Speaking  of  the  Philadelphia 
Woman's  Medical  College  it  is  said,  — 

"Subsequently  a  woman's  hospital  was  founded  in 
connection  with  the  college.  It  went  into  operation  in 
18G1.  More  than  a  thousand  patients  are  treated  annu- 
ally in  the  several  departments  of  the  hospital.  The 
resident  physician,  Dr.  EMELINE  HOKTON  CLEVELAND, 
after  graduating  in  the  college,  added  to  her  experi- 
ences a  year's  residence  in  the  MaternitS  at  Paris. 
Dr.  Cleveland  also  fills  the  chair  of  obstetrics,  and 
diseases  of  women  and  children  in  the  college,  and 
is  eminently  superior  as  a  practitioner.  As  a  lecturer, 
she  is  lucid,  eloquent,  and  earnest.  In  her  social  and 


552  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

in  her  domestic  relations  as  wife  and  mother,  she  is 
every  way  admirable.  Her  manner  is  so  gentle  and  so 
purely^  womanly,  that  the  coarsest  and  most  hardened 
creatures  are  refined  in  her  presence.  She  has  an  unus- 
ually commanding  and  graceful  person ;  and  her  dark 
eyes  are  of  the  '  almond  shape '  one  so  often  reads 
of,  and  so  rarely  sees.  She  is  also  most  happily  free 
from  any  professional  mannerism ;  and  a  stranger  from 
conversing  with  her  would  hardly  dream  of  her  being 
a  '  scientific '  woman,  although  ready  to  admit  her 
very  clever  and  cultivated,  and  endow  her  charms  with 
that  very  excellent  thing  in  woman,  —  a  low,  sweet 
voice." 

Among  the  notable  graduates  of  the  above  college  are 
Dr.  Elizabeth  C.  Keller,  whose  success  as  a  surgeon  in 
difficult  cases,  often  by  novel  and  original  instruments,  is 
widely  known  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  England ;  Dr. 
Helen  M.  Betts,  who  is  her  assistant  now  in  Jamaica 
Plain,  Mass.,  and  who  chiefly  attends  to  diseases  of  the 
eye ;  Dr.  Emily  White,  who  has  been  anatomical  dem- 
onstrator, and  has  studied  abroad  ;-Dr.  Almira  L.  Fowler, 
now  Dr.  Fowler-Ormsby,  who  is  practising  in  Orange, 
N.  J.,  having  already  acquired  a  competency ;  Drs. 
Gleason,  of  Elmira  ;  Amelia  Tompkins,  Hamilton  ;  Hunt, 
Oneida ;  Cook,  Buffalo  ;  Nivison,  Ithaca ;  Jane  Payne,  of 
Mount  Vernon,  Ohio  ;  Laura  E.  Ross,  Milwaukee  ;  Sarah 
Entricken,  Westchester,  Penn.  ;  C.  A.  Buckel,  Boston  ; 
Anita  E.  Tyng,  Providence,  R.  I. ;  and  Lucy  M.  Abbott, 
of  the  New  York  Infirmary,  who  is  remarkable  for  her 
energy,  her  straightforwardness,  and  quickness  of  percep- 
tion ;  Miss  Mary  C.  Putnam,  who  graduated  in  1864, 
and  studied  afterward  in  Paris,  and  was  the  first  woman 
admitted  to  visit  the  School  of  Medicine  in  that  city, 
having  passed  a  brilliant  examination.  She  has  since 
married  Dr.  Jacobi,  and  is  still  engaged  in  her  profes- 
sion. 


WOMEN   PHYSICIANS.  553 

Further  information  enables  the  author  to  add  of  Dr. 
Elizabeth  C.  Keller  that  her  maiden  name  was  Rex,  and 
she  was  born  in  1837,  near  Gettysburg,  Penn.  Her  first 
husband  was  Matthias  McComsey,  who  died  in  1859, 
leaving  her  with  one  son.  She  superintended  an  orphan 
asylum  in  Lancaster,  Penn.,  from  1860  to  1867  ;  then 
married  George  L.  Keller,  of  that  city.  Was  graduated 
by  the  above  mentioned  medical  college  in  1871  ;  con- 
ducted a  hospital  and  dispensary  in  Bedford  Street,  Phil- 
adelphia, successfully ;  afterward  accepted  the  position 
of  resident  physician  at  the  New  England  Hospital  for 
Women  and  Children,  in  Boston.  In  1877  began  her 
present  successful  practice  in  one  of  the  beautiful  sub- 
urbs of  Boston,  where  with  her  family  she  resides. 

Her  associate,  Dr.  Betts.  was  born  in  1846,  at  Vienna, 
Ohio.  Studied  in  select  schools,  and  with  her  father, 
who  was  a  clergyman,  till  in  1868  she  began  the  study  of 
medicine  "  from  pure  love  of  it,"  as  she  says.  By  teach- 
ing and  through  her  own  efforts  she  finished  a  full  course 
of  study  in  college,  graduated  in  1872,  and  went  into  pri- 
vate practice  in  Youngstown,  Ohio.  But  being  anxious 
for  hospital  practice,  in  three  years  accepted  a  position  as 
assistant  in  the  hospital  of  which  Dr.  Eliza  C.  Judson 
was  resident  physician,  and  from  thence  came  to  Jamaica 
Plain,  in  1878,  where  she  now  practices  with  success. 

"In  1856  the  New  England  Medical  College  was 
chartered  by  the.  Massachusetts  Legislature,  to  be  lo- 
cated in  Boston.  So  far  back  as  1844  the  subject  of 
employing  female  attendants  for  women  bad  engaged  the 
attention  of  George  Gregory ;  and  in  1848  his  brother, 
Samuel  Gregory,  opened  a  medical  school  for  women. 
The  college  has  steadily  progressed.  Over  fifty  tlipu- 
sand  dollars  have  been  bequeathed  to  it  from  different 
sources.  Some  remarkably  proficient  students  have 
received  the  degree  of  M.D.,  among  whom  may  be  men- 


554  WOMEN   OP  THE   CENTURY. 

tinned  FRANCES  M.  COOKE,  professor  of  anatomy,  and 
lecturer  on  physiology  and  hygiene,  for  the  past  nine 
}  ears  in  the  college  ;  also  ANNA  MONROE,  demonstra- 
tor of  anatomy  ;  Dr.  HAYNES  ;  Dr.  MORTON,  who  spent 
four  years  in  Paris,  two  in  study  and  two  in  practice ; 
Dr.  SEW  ALL,  now  in  London ;  Dr.  AVERY,  professor  of 
physiology  and  hygiene  in  Vassar  College ;  Dr.  WEB- 
STER, of  New  Bedford ;  and  MARY  H.  THOMPSON,  who 
graduated  in  1863,  and  went  to  Chicago  the  same  year, 
organized  a  woman's  hospital,  and.  displayed  a  deal  of 
energy,  tact,  and  good  sense. 

<'  The  New  York  Medical  College  for  Women  was 
chartered  in  1863,  since  which  time  one  hundred  women 
have  matriculated  in  it,  and  twenty-nine  completed 
its  course  of  study.  ANNA  INMAN,  M.D.,  fills  the 
chair  of  obstetrics;  Mrs.  C.  S.  LOZIER,  that  of  diseases 
of  women  and  children,  and  is  also  dean  of  tjie  college. 

"  The  Woman's  Medical  College  of  the  New  York 
Infirmary  was  chartered  in  1865,  and  its  first  college 
session  opened  November,  1868.  Having  two  such 
women  as  Drs.  ELIZABETH  and  EMILY  BLACKWELL  at 
its  head,  is  sufficient  prestige  of  its  success. 

"  Among  other  aids,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the 
large  Eclectic  Medical  College  of  Ohio  was  one  of  the 
first  to  welcome  women  as  students.  In  Cleveland, 
the  regular  and  homoaopathic  have  received  them,  as 
also  the  Chicago  Medical  School.  In  1850  the  Roch- 
ester Eclectic  School  opened  its  doors  to  women,  and, 
when  merged  in  the  Syracuse  school,  continued  to  do 
so.  In  1853  the  Penn  University  was  started  in  Phil- 
adelphia, with  separate  departments  of  instruction  for 
men  and  women.  It  was  discontinued  in  1864. 

"  The  New  England  Hospital  for  Women  and  Chil 


WOMEN   PHYSICIANS.  555 

dren,  which  was  organized  in  1861,  furnishes  essential 
help  to  medical  students.  Dr.  MARIE  E.  ZAKEZEW- 
SKA  is  attending  physician,  and  Dr.  Horatio  R.  Store r 
attending  surgeon.  Over  five  thousand  patients  are 
annually  treated,  without  regard  to  nationality  or  color, 
furnishing  an  almost  infinite  variety  of  diseases. 

"  The  New  York  Infirmary,  under  charge  of  the  Drs. 
Blackwell,  has  since  1856  given  relief  to  over  forty 
thousand  women  and  children.  Over  six  thousand 
were  recipients  of  its  charity  during  the  past  year. 
More  than  thirty  students  have  enjoyed  its  advantages, 
and  twenty  nurses  have  been  trained  and  established  in 
the  city." 

Two  physicians  whose  success  I  have  had  opportunity 
to  notice,  are  Dr.  Madana  F.  DeHart,  wife  of  a  lawyer 
of  Jersey  City,  and  the  sister  of  that  lawyer,  Dr.  Sarah 
DeHart.  These  ladies  have  shared  one  office  for  many 
years,  and  won  universal  respect  as  practitioners. 

The  "  Phrenological  Journal  "  says  :  "  DR.  ALICE 
BENNETT  is  chief  physician  in  the  female  department  of 
the  Norristown  Insane  Asylum ;  Dr.  Agnes  Johnson,  of 
Zanesville,  Ohio,  is  assistant  physician  in  the  Athens 
(Ohio)  Insane  Asylum  ;  Dr.  Margaret  Cleves  is  the  chief 
physician  at  the  State  Hospital  for  the  Insane  at  Harris- 
burg,  where  Drs.  Jane  Carver  and  Anna  Kugler  are  as- 
sistants ;  and  Dr.  Emma  Boon  has  lately  been  appointed 
.is  assistant  to  Dr.  Richardson  in  the  insane  department 
of  the  Philadelphia  Almshouse. 

Let  the  list  of  women  physicians  grow  until  there 
are  enough  for  every  city,  town,  and  hamlet  in  our 
land ;  remembering  that  to  the  female  man  as  well  as 
to  the  male  may  Cicero's  words  apply :  "  Homines 
ad  Deos  nulld  re  propius  accedunt,  quam  salutem  homini- 
bus  dando.1 

i  "  Men  in  no  particular  approach  so  nearly  to  the  gods  as  by  giving 
health  to  their  fellow-men." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


WOMEN   AS   READERS,  ACTORS,   AND   SINGERS. 


Charlotte  Cushman  —  Maggie  Mitchell  —  Clara  Louise  Kellogg  — 
Louise  Woodworth  Foss  —  Anna  Cora  Mowatt  Ritchie  —  S.  Emma 
Covell  —  Anna  Randall  Diehl. 

"  Her  words  have  ''rung  throughout  the  world,  and  thrilled  the  coldest  heart, 
And  bidden  from  the  sternest  eye  the  sudden  tear-drop  start. 

'  Oh!  every  lovely,'  lavish  thing,  'that  'may'  to  life  belong. 
Is  like  the  free,  o'erflowing  wealth  of  woman's  gift  of  song." 

MARY  M.  CHASE. 

"  Whatsoever  ye  do,  do  it  heartily,  as  to  the  Lord,  and  not  unto  men."  —  COL. 
iii.  23. 

/CHARLOTTE  CUSHMAN,  the  singer,  the  actor,  the 
^S  reader!  —  for  she  was  all  these  at  different  periods 
of  her  brilliant  career,  —  admiration  for  the  artist,  and 
love  for  the  woman,  would  place  her  name  at  the  head 
of  the  chapter,  even  if  it  was  not  naturally  the  first 
suggested  when  one  thinks  of  women  on  the  stage  ;  for 
she  ennobled  the  profession  by  her  pure  life  and  noble 
character  and  fine  talent.  She  was  born  in  Boston, 
July  23,  1816.  She  was  of  "  Pilgrim  "  descent  on  both 

556 


WOMEN  AS   READERS,  ACTORS,    AND   SINGERS.   557 

sides;  her  ancestor,  Robert  CuslimaD,  being  one  of  the 
band  of  non-conformists  in  Holland,  a  part  of  whom 
came  in  "  The  Mayflower "  to  old  Plymouth  Rock. 
Her  ancestor  came  over  in  the  succeeding  vessel  in  1G21, 
in  time  to  preach  the  first  sermon  in  America  ever 
printed.  He  little  thought  his  descendant  would  make 
his  name  illustrious  on  the  stage.  Her  father  was  a 
manufacturer  of  ship-bread,  and  was  quite  successful 
for  many  years.  But  reverses  came  :  he  died,  and  the 
property  all  passed  into  the  hands  of  his  partner.  Char- 
lotte was  but  about  twelve  years  of  age  ;  but  she  was 
greatly  distressed  by  the  fact  that  the  widow  and  five 
children  should  be  left  wholly  destitute,  even  the 
household  furniture  being  taken  by  the  partner.  She 
vowed  then  in  her  young  heart  that  she  would  gain  a 
support  for  her  mother,  that  she  would  become  richer 
than  the  partner;  and,  as  she  herself  stated  to  the  writ- 
er, she  did  live  to  see  the  day  when  that  partner  came 
to  her,  and  begged  for  help  to  save  himself  from  bank- 
ruptcy, and  she  had  the  satisfaction  of  heaping  coals  of 
fire  on  his  head  by  furnishing  the  required  sum  of 
money.  She  was  his  financial  superior  at  last ;  and  he 
was  doubtless  ashamed  of  the  part  he  had  played  in  her 
early  days.  She  began  her  public  life  by  singing  at 
little  exhibitions  and  concerts,  and  when  quite  young 
was  a  member  of  the  choir  in  the  School-street  Church, 
inhere  Rev.  Hosea  Ballon  was  then  preaching.  She 
was  baptized  in  infancy  by  Rev.  Dr.  Peabody  of  the 
Unitarian  church.  She  was  always  liberal  in  her  reli- 
gious views,  and  retained  to  the  last  a  cheerful  hope  in 
God's  great  love  for  all  his  children.  Very  early  in 
life  she  felt  it  her  duty  to  aid  her  mother,  and  this  filial 
love  was  always  manifested.  She  cared  for  her  tender- 
ly many  long  years,  and  was  the  strength  and  support 


558  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

of  the  whole  family,  aiding  her  brothers  to  profitable 
employment,  and  caring  for  her  sister  till  there  was  no 
further  need.  Her  sister,  SUSAN  CUSHMAN,  was  an 
actress  also,  and  played  Juliet  to  Charlotte's  Romeo. 
Her  marriage  with  Dr.  Muspratt  of  England  led  to  her 
leaving  the  stage,  as  he  was  a  chemist  of  wealth.  By 
her  first  husband,  Susan  had  one  son,  whom  Charlotte 
adopted  as  her  own,  and  to  whom  she  left  the  bulk  of 
her  property,  as  a  mother  naturally  would.  Miss 
Cushman  began  first  to  sing  in  public;  but,  her  voice 
failing  while  in  New  Orleans,  she  was  advised  to  go  on 
the  stage,  and  did  so,  appearing  first  in  Lady  Macbeth. 
"  It  was  a  bold  first  step,  but  it  was  successfully  taken 
with  a  consciousness  of  her  powers.  From  that  first 
performance,  doubtless  greatly  improved  as  she  prose- 
cuted her  art,  she  made  the  character  her  own ;  and  it 
lias  always  remained  one  of  her  most  distinctive 
parts." l 

On  her  return  from  New  Orleans,  Miss  Cushrnan 
appeared  at  the  Bowery  Theatre  in  New  York  City.1 
But  "her  performances  here,  the  proceeds  of  which 
were  devoted  to  the  support  of  her  family,  were  inter- 
rupted by  illness ;  and,  before  her  health  was  restored, 
the  theatre  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and  with  it  all  hei 
theatrical  wardrobe  was  lost." 

Many  were  her  discouragements.  Dark  hours  came, 
when  success  almost  seemed  hopeless ;  but  she  was 
undaunted.  The  force  of  her  character  was  seen  in 
her  perseverance  amid  difficulties  in  those  early  days, 
as  well  as  in  her  patient  endurance  of  extreme  suffer- 
ing in  her  last  years.  It  was  in  1837,  while  playing  at 
the  old  National  Theatre,  that  she  appeared  first  as 
Meg  Merrilies,  a  character  which  her  impersonation  has 

l  Portrait-Gallery  of  Eminent  Men  and  Women. 


WOMEN   AS   READERS,   ACTORS,   AND  SINGERS.   559 

rendered  immortal.  She  then  played  at  the  Park  The- 
atre as  leading  actress ;  and  there  it  was  in  1839  that 
she  introduced  her  sister  Susan  to  the  stage.  "  In  this 
first  performance,  in  a  play  called  '  The  Genoese,'  Char- 
lotte acted  the  lover  Montaldo  to  her  sister's  Laura." 
She  went  to  Philadelphia,  and  in  1844  appeared  on  the 
stage  with  Mr.  Macready,  who  recognized  her  marvel- 
lous ability.  Shortly  after,  having  gained  high  position 
in  her  native  land,  she  left  with  her  sister  for  England, 
and  was  engaged  at  the  Princess  Theatre  in  February, 
1845,  in  the  character  of  Bianca  in  "  Fazio."  After 
this  came  "  Lady  Macbeth,  to  which  the  highest  praise 
was  given  by  the  London  critics.  Its  merits  were  uni- 
versally conceded.  The  stage,  said  an  able  writer  in 
'  The  Atheneurn,'  had  long  been  waiting  for  a  great 
actress,  one  capable  of  sustaining  the  gorgeous  majesty 
of  the  Tragic  Muse ;  and  the  desideratum,  he  confessed, 
was  supplied  in  the  performance  of  Miss  Cushman. 
Again,  when  a  few  weeks  later  she  acted  Beatrice,  we 
are  told  by  the  same  journal  how  she  '  showed  her 
usual  decision  and  purpose  in  the  assumption  of  the 
character-qualities  in  which  at  present  she  has  not 
only  no  rivr.l,  but  no  competitor.'  In  Julia,  in  '  The 
Hunchback,'  she  won  new  laurels,  especially  in  the 
more  forcible  passages,  being  pronounced  *  the  only 
actress  who  has  at  all  approached  the  first  represen- 
tative of  the  character.  She  also  successfully  acted 
Juliana,  in  *  The  Honeymoon.'  Her  Portia  was  ad- 
mired, and  her  Meg  Merrilies  established  as  '  a  perform- 
ance of  fearful  and  picturesque  energy,  making  a  grand 
impression.'  In  the  following  season  Miss  Cushman 
played  an  engagement  at  Haymarket  Theatre,  in  which 
she  appeared  as  Romeo  to  her  sister's  Juliet.  The  lat- 
ter was  admired  for  its  beauty  and  delicacy ;  and  the 


560  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

former,  while  regarded  as  a  bold  venture,  and  in  some 
degree  as  an  exceptional  performance,  was  described 
as  '  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  pieces  of  acting, 
perhaps,  ever  exhibited  by  a  woman,  —  masculine  in 
deportment,  artistic  in  conception,  complete  in  execu- 
tion, positive  in  its  merits,  both  in  parts  and  as  a  whole, 
and  successful  in  its  immediate  impression.'  Miss 
Cushman  also  appeared  in  this  engagement  as  Ion,  in 
Talfourd's  Greek  tragedy ;  and  as  Viola,  in  «  Twelfth 
Night,'  to  her  sister's  Olivia,  — in  which  they  were  both 
much  admired.  Charlotte's  Meg  Merrilies,  again  re- 
peatedly acted,  became  her  most  popular  performance  ; 
and  it  was  noticed  how,  out  of  the  meagre  materials 
of  the  drama,  she  had  by  her  skill  and  effective  addi- 
tions of  by-play  created  an  historic  whole,  —  a  triumph 
of  art." 

These  successes  were  continued  abroad.  In  1849 
Miss  Cushman  again  played  in  New  York,  and  finally, 
after  a  brilliant  series  of  performances  at  the  principal 
theatres  in  America,  closed  with  a  farewell  benefit  at 
Broadway  Theatre  in  New  York,  in  May,  1852.  She 
went  back  to  England,  but  came  again  in  1857  to  make 
another  tour  in  the  States,  in  the  course  of  which  she 
acted  the  part  of  Cardinal  Wolsey,  being  probably  the 
first  woman  who  ever  personated  that  character. 
Again  she  went  to  England,  where  she  had  a  lovely 
home,  and  where  her  sister  and  brother  were  estab- 
lished. But  she  came  back  to  America,  and  played 
forty-eight  consecutive  nights  in  New  York  in  1860, 
reviving  her  powerful  representation  of  Nancy  Sykes 
after  an  interval  of  twenty  years.  She  shortly  after 
sailed  for  Europe,  and  her  loyalty  to  the  Union  was 
conspicuous  there ;  in  1863  she  came  back,  and  played 
in  behalf  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  adding  over 


WOMEN  AS   READERS,   ACTORS,   AND   SINGERS.  561 

eight  thousand  dollars  to  that  charitable  national  fund. 
In  1871  she  returned  to  America  to  die.  She  knew 
that  her  time  was  short,  but  the  same  invincible  energy 
was  manifest.  The  assistance  of  the  queen's  surgeon, 
Sir  James  Simpson,  was  enlisted  to  perform  for  her  a 
surgical  operation,  in  the  hope  that  her  life  might  be 
prolonged ;  but  in  vain.  She  had  four  years  given  to 
her  as  her  lease  of  life  by  the  eminent  physician,  if 
sit  e  returned  to  her  native  air.  She  came,  and  lived 
nearly  five,  so  great  was  her  strength  of  constitution, 
so  powerful  her  indomitable  will.  She  was  not  afraid 
to  die;  but,  like  Alice  Carey,  she  "  longed  so  to  live." 
They  suffered  similarl}^  the  one  with  her  pen  in  retire- 
ment, the  other  with  her  voice  before  the  public  ;  and 
the  latter  must  have  been  the  harder  task,  —  a  Spartan 
heroism,  an  heroic  patience  !  Her  farewell  to  the  stage 
will  not  soon  be  forgotten ;  and  the  picture  of  the 
great  tragedienne  receiving  from  the  great  and  ven- 
erable poet  a  laurel  crown,  for  her  pure  life  and 
great  genius,  is  a  picture  that  will  not  soon  fade  from 
the  memory  of  the  thousands  who  beheld  it,  or  the 
vast  army  of  readers  who  delightedly  perused  the 
newspaper  accounts  of  the  deserved  ovation.  Then 
she  gave  herself  mainly  to  reading ;  and  her  motive 
was  not  purely  mercenary,  though  she  had  the  largest 
prices  ever  paid  to  any  reader.  She  said  to  the 
writer  that  she  hoped  by  herself  reading  she  might 
bring  up  the  profession  of  readers  before  the  public, 
and  thus  help  the  large  number  of  young  girls  who 
were  desirous  to  read.  She  said  also  that  she  chose  to 
read  from  the  play  of  "  Henry  Eighth  "  because  Queen 
Katherine  was  a  reproof  to  all  loose  ideas  concerning 
marriage ;  and  she  wished  to  bear  her  testimony  in 
favor  of  the  sanctity  of  that  relation,  and  the  wicked 


562  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

ness  of  unscriptural  divorces.  In  all  this  she  showed 
her  true  nobility  of  soul,  and  closed  a  stainless  life 
with  an  act  of  high  morality. 

In  a  beautiful  villa  not  far  from  the  sounding  sea,  at 
Newport,  R.I.,  she  spent  the  last  few  summers  of  her 
earthly  life,  in  the  loved  society  of  her  friend  Emma 
Stebbins,  and  the  family  of  her  adopted  son,  faithfully 
attended  by  the  colored  servant  Sallie  Mercer,  who  had 
become  more  friend  than  servant  in  her  thirty  years 
and  more  of  companionship  with  the  woman  whose 
greatness  was  as  conspicuous  in  the  home  circle  as  on 
the  boards,  since  it  was  the  greatness  of  character  as 
well  as  genius;  and  from  that  summer  retreat  she  came 
to  her  native  city,  where  she  died  at  the  Parker  House, 
and  was  buried  from  King's  Chapel.  Her  remains  now 
rest  in  the  spot  she  herself  chose  at  Mount  Auburn, 
saying,  "  It  commands  a  view  of  beloved  Boston." 
One  of  her  many  friends,1  recently  visiting  Mount 
Auburn,  wrote  a  poem  from  which  these  stansas  are 
taken :  — 

"  I  linger  long  and  lovingly 

Beside  the  spot  where  lies  the  form 
Of  her  who  stood  so  grandly  true 
Amid  earth's  sunshine  or  its  storm. 

No  granite  pile  or  sculptured  urn 

Speaks  of  her  virtues  or  her  fame  ; 
But  marble,  stainless  as  her  life, 

Bears  nought  save  this  —  her  honored  name." 

LOUISE  WOODWOKTH  Foss  is  justly  regarded  by  the 
large  majority  of  lyceum-committees  and  judges  of  good 
readings  as  the  best  reader  before  the  American  public. 
She  certainly  has  been  the  most  successful  in  winning 

i  Ellen  E.  Miles. 


LOUISE   WOODWORTH   FOSS. 


WOMEN   AS   READERS,   ACTORS,   AND   SINGERS.    565 

audiences  again  and  again  in  the  same  cities ;  and,  for 
her  rare  combination  of  gifts  which  lead  to  success  in 
her  profession,  is  deservedly  counted  among  the  first 
woman  elocutionists  in  the  world. 

While  Charlotte  Cushman  was  before  the  public,  all 
eyes  turned  to  her,  the  well-deserved  fame  of  the 
actress  assisting  in  securing  the  fame  of  the  reader ; 
but,  now  that  she  is  gone,  the  public  generally  look  to 
Mrs.  Foss  as  the  woman  reader  who  satisfies  both  eye 
and  ear  in  cultivated  audiences,  and  evinces  an  intel- 
lectual comprehension  of  the  author's  meaning  which 
is  as  rare  as  it  is  acceptable. 

Mrs.  Foss  is  a  native  of  Thetford,  Vt. ;  was  educated 
at  the  somewhat  celebrated  Thetford  Academy,  and 
became  a  teacher.  Subsequently  she  married,  and, 
after  a  few  years  of  home  life,  adopted  the  profession 
of  an  elocutionist,  studying  with  Prof.  Baxter  of  Har- 
vard College. 

She  has  now  been  before  the  public  for  five  successive 
seasons,  her  engagements  extending  through  the  prin- 
cipal cities  of  twenty-two  States. 

Nothing  better  has  ever  been  written  of  an  elocution- 
ist than  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore  wrote  of  Mrs.  Foss ; 
and  place  is  given  it  here  because  it  is  a  credit  to  its 
author's  womanly  sympathy  and  appreciation,  as  well 
as  a  deserved  testimony  to  Mrs.  Foss  as  a  reader :  — 

"  *  Mrs.  Foss  will  read  in  my  parlors  this  evening,  for 
the  entertainment  of  a  few  friends :  will  you  come  and 
hear  her  ? ' 

"Such  was  the  invitation  of  an  old-time  acquaint- 
ance, which  I  hastened  to  accept.  For  I  had  been  one 
of  Mrs.  Foss's  audience  in  Dorchoster,  two  years  before, 
and  retained  a  pleasant  memory  of  the  evening's  enter- 


566  WOMEN   OF   THE   CENTURY. 

taiument.  Moreover,  I  knew  that  she  was  better  worth 
hearing  now  than  then ;  and  that  she  had  been  a  hard 
student  during  these  two  intervening  years,  was  ambi- 
tious of  the  highest  excellence  in  her  art,  as  well  as  of 
the  largest  success  on  the  platform ;  and  all  through 
the  winter,  in  New  England,  I  had  heard  lyceum-com- 
mittees  mention  her  in  terms  of  praise. 

"  Other  circumstances  had  given  me  an  interest  in 
the  lady.  Scattered  here  and  there,  in  New  England 
towns,  I  had  stumbled  on  her  former  pupils,  who 
always  manifested  a  tender  eagerness  to  know  of  her 
success  ;  speaking  of  her  in  a  manner  that  was  compli- 
mentary to  her  girlish  patience  and  ability  as  a  teacher. 
In  occasional  visits  to  her  husband's  studio,  I  had  seen 
that  she  was  his  helper  in  emergencies,  quite  at  home 
in  the  details  of  his  art,  ready  to  favor  him  with  valu- 
able suggestions  as  to  the  pose  of  a  sitter  or  the  expres- 
sion of  a  picture.  I  knew  also  that  she  was  an 
accomplished  housewife,  deft  with  the  needle,  and 
proud  of  her  ability  to  work  marvels  with  the  sewing- 
machine.  I  had  seen,  '  with  my  own  eyes,'  achieve- 
ments of  hers  in  the  dressmaking  and  millinery  line, 
which  might  lead  many  a  fashionable  modiste  to  break 
the  Tenth  Commandment  in  envy  of  her  untaught  native 
skill.  And  one  evening,  in  the  country,  I  had  sur- 
prised her  at  an  out-door  game  of  romps  with  her  little 
seven-year-old  Eddie,  who,  fleet  as  the  winged  Mercury, 
had  challenged  his  mother  to  a  brief  foot-race,  in  which 
he  had  won.  As  I  witnessed  their  merry  frolic,  and 
the  motherly  love-scene  in  which  it  ended,  my  heart 
went  out  to  both,  and  I  recognized,  in  the  aspiring 
artist,  the  true  woman  and  tender  mother. 

"  So  I  was  glad  to  see  more  of  Mrs.  Foss,  and  at  an 
early  hour  sought  the  house  of  my  friend,  whose  bril- 


WOMEN  AS   EEADEKS,   ACTORS,   AND  SINGERS.     567 

liantly  lighted  parlors  I  found  well  filled  by  a  care- 
fully selected,  but  somewhat  cold  and  critical  audience. 
Four  clergymen  of  different  sects  were  of  the  party,  the 
entire  force  of  one  of  the  lecture-bureaus,  several 
prominent  musical  people,  a  teacher  of  elocution,  and 
members  of  three  lyceum-committees,  who  had  accepted 
my  friend's  invitation,  as  she  had  given  it,  '  with  an  eye 
to  business.'  Mrs.  Foss  was  a  stranger  to  all,  only 
three  or  four  present  having  seen  her.  To  read  well  to 
that  calm,  cold,  prejudging  assembly  of  less  than  a 
hundred  people,  was  a  more  difficult  thing  than  to  read 
well  to  a  miscellaneous  assemblage  filling  Tremont 
Temple. 

"  The  decorous  buzz  of  subdued  conversation  ceased 
as  the  lady  reader  entered,  escorted  by  her  handsome 
husband,  who  is*  as  proud  of  as  ambitious  for  his  gifted 
wife.  A  young  woman  stood  before  us,  fresh,  winsome, 
bright,  and  cheery,  showing  perfect  health  in  her  bril- 
liant complexion  and  well-rounded  figure,  who  bowed 
to  us  gracefully,  and  greeted  us  with  so  pleasant  a  smile 
as  to  bespeak  immediately  the  good-will  of  everybody. 
Her  figure  was  fine  and  commanding,  her  dress  stylish 
and  becoming,  and  her  manner  dignified,  perfectly  self- 
possessed,  and  free  from  superficiality.  She  began  to 
read :  her  educated  voice  was  music  in  its  every  tone. 
Clear  as  a  silver  bell,  resonant  and  flexible,  it  is  capable 
of  expressing  every  grade  of  passion  and  emotion 
known  to  humanity. 

"  She  gave  us  Longfellow's  4  Sandalphon,  the  Angel 
of  Prayer ; '  and  our  hearts  throbbed  responsive  to  the 
beseeching,  imploring  petitions  of  those  who,  '  burdened 
with  crosses,'  pour  out  their  plaints  to  heaven.  She 
recited  '  The  Charcoal  Man ; '  and  we  heard  the  oft- 
rej  eated  echoes  of  the  distant  hills,  as  they  gave  back 


568  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUUY. 

the  cry  of  the  charcoal-vender,  and  the  mimicries  of 
mischievous  urchins  in  far,  far,  away  streets.  She  read 
'  La  Cica ; '  and,  lo !  the  voluptuous  and  wily  Italian 
countess  was  before  us,  with  her  languid  air,  her  co- 
quettish glances,  her  softly-spoken,  Italianized  English, 
while  her  companion,  the  Hoosier  senator,  lined  out 
to  her,  with  Western  accent,  a  quotation  from  Isaac 
Watts,  his  '  favorite  English  poet.'  Then  followed 
4  Gone  with  a  Handsomer  Man ; '  and  we  wept  over  the 
desolation  of  the  seemingly  deserted  young  husband, 
who  smothered  the  curses  that  leaped  to  his  lips,  and 
blessed  his  faithless  but  still  beloved  wife  instead  ; 
and  when  the  joking  wife  returned,  in  company  with 
her  father,  who  proved  to  be  her  '  handsomer  man,'  we 
all  caught  the  contagion  of  John's  hearty  laughter,  as 
glad  to  have  the  joke  end  thus  happily  as  was  the 
benumbed  but  now  beatified  John. 

"  How  we  all  broke  down  over  the  death-scene  of 
poor  '  Jo,'  as  depicted  in  the  '  Bleak  House ! '  the  thin, 
husky  voice  begging  piteously,  in  the  darkness  of 
coming  death,  for  the  '  light '  which  was  '  so  slow  in 
coming,'  and  then  halting  forever  midway  in  prayer, 
as  the  light  of  the  great  hereafter  burst  on  his  aston- 
ished vision,  dispelling  for  him  the  fogs  and  mists  and 
chilling  vapors  of  earth  which  had  always  enshrouded 
it.  She  recited  *  Charlie  Machree  ; '  and  by  this  time  we 
had  forgotten  to  criticise,  and  had  yielded  ourselves  to 
the  enjoyment  of  the  occasion,  expressing  our  satisfac- 
tion in  a  perfect  abandon  of  applause.  We  held  our 
breath  at  the  artistic  rendering  of  the  dramatic  little 
poem,- which  showed  us  the  stalwart  Charlie  battling 
with  the  swift-flowing  river,  across  which  his  vain 
Scotch  sweet-heart  had  dared  him  to  swim.  He  began 
to  sink  ;  and  our  hearts  stood  still  at  her  frozen  horror. 


WOMEN  AS  HEADERS,   ACTORS,   AND   SINGERS.     569 

She  shrieked  for  '  help ! '  and  we  rose  half  way  from 
our  seats  in  our  desire  to  go  to  aid  her.  Leaning  over 
the  river's  brink  with  widely  extended  arms,  she  en- 
couraged, and  tenderly  exhorted,  and  bravely  assured 
him,  till  his  hand  grasped  hers,  and  he  was  saved. 
And  the  little  parlor  audience  went  wild  with  acclama- 
tion as  the  fair  reader  gave  us  a  picture  of  the  Scotch 
laddie  fainting  on  the  bank,  now  held  to  the  heart 
of  his  overjoyed  lassie,  who  turned  to  weep  aloud 
with  penitence  at  the  peril  she  had  enticed  him  to  run, 
and  gladness  for  his  salvation. 

"And  then  came  a  reading  from  the  'Midsummer 
Night's  Dream,'  with  another  from  '  Macbeth,'  sand- 
wiched between  selections  from  Mark  Twain's  '  Inno- 
cents Abroad,'  and  Mrs.  Stowe's  *  Oldtown  Stories.' 

"  Our  programme  was  long  and  varied.  For  the 
audience  soon  took  that  matter  into  their  hands,  calling 
out  for  what  they  wanted,  like  diners  at  a  cafe ;  so 
that  we  were  treated  in  generous  measure  to  a  perfect 
olla  podrida  of  comedy,  tragedy,  narrative,  dialogue, 
and  parody. 

"  Nobody  seemed  to  remember  that  Mrs.  Foss  might 
be  wearied,  until  it  was  well  on  to  midnight.  And 
then  her  audience  crowded  about  her,  the  ice  of  the 
early  evening  all  thawed  away,  to  offer  hearty  con- 
gratulations and  eloquent  thanks,  while  the  members  of 
the  three  lyceum-committees  lingered  a  little  to  engage 
uer  for  their  next  winter's  course  of  entertainments. 

"  Later  in  the  season  I  was  present  at  a  public  read- 
ing given  by  Mrs.  Foss  in  Boston.  It  was  for  the  benefit 
of  some  charity,  and  the  hall  was  located  in  a  densely 
peopled  neighborhood.  As  the  evening  was  warm,  the 
windows  of  the  hall  were  flung  wide  open,  and  whole 
families  of  the  humble  people  in  the  immediate  vicinity 


570  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

swarmed  into  the  back  yards,  or  sought  the  coolness  of 
the  hour  from  open  windows  or  outer  doorsteps.  The 
programme  included  '  Charlie  Machree,'  which  Mrs. 
Foss  gave  with  great  dramatic  effect.  As  she  repeated 
the  appealing  cry,  '  Help,  help !  or  he'll  die  ! '  uttered 
by  the  Scotch  lassie  who  sees  her  lover  sink  in  the 
black  water,  she  put  into  it  so  much  of  real  agony  and 
mortal  terror,  that  it  startled  the  smoking,  gossiping 
crowds  below.  Straightway  there  went  up  from  their 
midst  such  shouts  of,  '•Murder!  murder!  that's  a 
zvomari's  voice  !  help  !  police  ! '  that  two  of  the  watchful 
city  guardians  rushed  up  the  stairway,  three  steps  at  a 
bound,  and,  clubs  in  hand,  stood  before  us,  ready  to 
arrest  the  supposed  violator  of  the  law. 

"  Mrs.  Foss  has  youth,  health,  and  talent ;  and,  with 
the  laudable  ambition  which  now  moves  her,  the  world 
will  yet  hear  more  of  her.  As  it  is,  she  is  already  well 
known  to  the  public,  which  has  accorded  her  no  small 
meed  of  praise,  and  of  more  substantial  recompense." 

MAGGIE  MITCHELL,  by  marriage  named  now  Mrs. 
Paddock,  is  among  the  favorites  of  the  theatre-going 
American  people.  She  has  a  peculiar  aptitude  for 
the  representation  of  childhood's  ways,  and  in  her 
inimitable  personations  of  "  Little  Barefoot "  and 
"  Fanchon  "  has  won  deserved  praise.  Her  "  Pearl  of 
Savoy  "  is  also  excellent,  but  her  forte  lies  in  her  great 
ability  to  present  childish  ways.  She  is  said  to  be  a 
woman  of  great  moral  worth,  and  richly  to  deserve  the 
pecuniary  success  she  has  achieved. 

FANNY  DAVENPORT  and  OLIVE  LOGAN  and  KATE 
FIELD  are  well  known  as  good  actors.  The  two  last 
mentioned  have  used  their  pens  to  some  purpose.  The 
last  has  just  commenced  a  successful  career  in  England ; 


WOMEN  AS  READERS,   ACTORS,   AND  SINGERS.      571 

and  Olive  Logan  has  forsaken  the  stage  since  hei 
marriage  to  Mr.  Wirt  Sikes,  and  advises  young  girls  to 
keep  clear  of  the  stage.  This  was  also  Miss  Cushman's 
advice.  She  said  she  had  never  encouraged  any  one 
to  adopt  the  stage  as  a  profession,  and  she  never 
consciously  had  a  pupil,  though  she  was  doubtless  a 
teacher  by  bright  example  all  her  life. 

FANNY  FOSTER  is  among  the  acceptable  actresses  of 
later  days,  and  most  recently  Mrs.  POMEROY,  whose 
stage  name  may  be  something  different.  A  limited 
acquaintance  with  the  stage,  and  a  desire  to  make  this 
chapter  brief  as  possible,  leads  to  a  becoming  brevity 
in  regard  to  actresses.  That  purity  of  life  and  mod- 
esty of  deportment  may  be  consistent  with  stage  life, 
Charlotte  Cushmau  has  shown  us ;  but  her  own  words 
deter  one  from  encouraging  very  greatly  the  young 
woman  who  can  work  in  any  other  department  from 
adopting  this  profession.  Hence  many  regret  that 
ANNA  DICKINSON  has  stepped  from  the  high  place  she 
occupied  as  a  lecturer,  to  any  place  upon  the  boards. 
She  may,  however,  ennoble  the  stage  as  Miss  Cushman 
did,  and  help  those  who  act  with  her  to  noble  aims  and 
true  living.  It  is  certainly  an  honest  and  honorable 
employment  "  to  hold  the  mirror  up  to  nature ; "  and, 
if  the  actor's  private  character  is  "above  reproach,  the 
player,  no  less  than  the  writer  or  the  beholder  of  the 
play,  is  entitled  to  respectful  consideration. 

Among  the  singers  of  our  century,  and  they  are 
many,  may  be  specially  mentioned.  CLARA  LOUISE 
KELLOGG,  EMMA  ABBOTT,  Miss  THURSBY,  ANNIE 
GUILFORD,  ANNIE  LOUISE  GARY,  JULE  DE  RYTHER, 
and  the  Hutchinson  ladies,  ELIZABETH,  VIOLA,  and 
ABBY.  The  latter  have  already  been  mentioned  among 
the  reformers,  for  they  have  done  admirable  service 


572  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

by  singing  the  songs  of  freedom  and  reform  at  temper- 
perance  meetings  and  the  like.  Among  musical  artists 
should  be  mentioned  Prof.  CHARLOTTE  V.  WINTER- 
Bunx,  who  has  successfully  taught  music  in  the  Nor- 
mal College  of  New  York. 

CLARA  LOUISE  KELLOGG  is  of  New  England  de- 
scent, but  was  born  during  a  temporary  sojourn  of  her 
parents  at  the  South.  Her  musical  ear  has  always 
been  of  the  finest.  Her  voice  is  a  mezzo-soprano  of 
great  range  and  sweetness.  "When  but  nine  months 
old,  and  yet  in  arms,  she  essayed  to  sing  a  tune  that 
pleased  her  baby  fancy ;  and  accomplishing  the  first 
part,  but  failing  to  turn  it  correctly,  she  stopped,  and 
was  not  heard  to  attempt  it  again  till  just  before  the 
completion  of  the  year,  when  she  broke  out  in  a  tri- 
umph, and  sang  the  whole  air  through.  .  .  .  She  comes 
of  quite  a  peculiar  family :  her  father  is  an  inventor  of 
no  small  merit,  though  sharing  the  ill  fortune  of  most 
inventors,  and  seeing  other  people  acquire  wealth  by 
the  labors  of  his  own  brain ;  one  of  her  grandparents 
was  famous  for  his  mathematical  attainments  ;  and  a 
grandmother,  still  living,  is  an  excellent  violinist,  and 
used  formerly,  in  the  beginning  of  the  cotton  manufac- 
ture, to  superintend  the  erection  in  large  mills  of  a  very 
valuable  invention  of  her  own ;  and  thus  may  be  seen 
another  argument  in  favor  of  that  idea  that  music  is 
the  sublimation  and  idealism  of  mathematics.  Miss 
Kellogg's  mother  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  notable 
women  in  the  country,  still  young,  good,  kind,  and 
wise  ;  she  sings  a  little,  plays  a  little,  paints  a  little, 
models  a  little,  and  does  all  well.  She  attended  per- 
sonally to  the  education  of  Louise,  was  her  instructor 
in  much,  has  been  her  constant  confidante,  companion 
and  manager,  designs  all  her  costumes,  superintends 


WOMEN  AS  BEADERS,   ACTORS,   AND   SINGERS.      573 

her  dressing,  stands  always  ready  behind  the  scenes 
with  a  wrap  ready  to  fold  around  her  as  she  leaves  the 
stage,  —  having  never  yet  seen  her  from  the  front,  — 
and  shielding  her  always  as  carefully  as  a  daughter 
could  be  shielded  in  a  mother's  drawing-room ;  a 
daughter,  in  this  case,  well  repaying  the  care  by 
affection,  uprightness,  and  rare  intelligence." 

Among  the  young  elocutionists  is  named  with  pleas- 
ure S.  EMMA  COWELL  of  New  York  City,  who  has 
read  with  great  acceptance  in  several  cities.  She  has 
also  an  aptness  to  teach,  which  has  already  been  enjoyed 
by  ladies  of  high  social  position.  With  rare  dramatic 
powers,  a  fine,  flexible  voice,  which  she  well  knows 
how  to  modulate,  and  with  an  artist's  comprehension 
of  the  pieces  she  reads,  Miss  Cowell  bids  fair  to  win 
many  laurels.  She  is  now  studying  the  classics  in  a 
Maine  seminary,  and  preparing  herself  for  great  use- 
fulness in  the  future. 

ANNA  RANDALL  DIEHL  is  a  fine  teacher  of  elocu- 
tion, and  has  prepared  several  volumes  which  may 
greatly  assist  students.  She  is  editing  also  a  quarterly 
for  elocutionists,  which  has  been  found  very  useful. 

She  resides  in  New  York  City,  but  has  taught  in 
various  parts  of  the  Union.  Mrs.  Foss  should  have 
been  mentioned  also  as  a  teacher  of  her  art,  who  has 
been  veiy  successful  in  instructing  teachers  in  the 
public  schools,  as  Mrs.  Diehl  has  also  done. 

MARTHA  E.  POWERS  is  a  teacher  of  elocution  in 
New  York  City,  and  LAURA  M.  BRONSON,  and  the  wife 
of  Prof.  W.  C.  Lyman  also.  The  wife  of  Prof.  George 
Vandenhoff  is  likewise  a  teacher  there ;  and,  if  the 
rising  generation  do  not  learn  to  read  and  speak  well, 
it  will  not  be  for  lack  of  good  teachers,  among  whom 
may  surely  be  mentioned  ELLEN  E.  MILES,  now  in 


574  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUEY. 

Jersey  City.     Miss  Powers  is  indorsed  by  the  great, 
sweet  Quaker  poet,  in  these  words  :  — 

AMESBURY,  lltli  Mo.,  30th,  1874. 

I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  readings  by  Martha  E. 
Powers,  and  can  freely  recommend  her  to  all  who  need  the  services 
of  a  thoroughly  trained  and  competent  teacher  of  elocution.  She 
possesses  all  the  requisites  of  a  good  reader,  in  her  voice,  manner, 
and  ability  to  render  the  most  delicate  shades  of  meaning.  I 
have  no  doubt  of  her  giving  entire  satisfaction  to  her  pupils. 

Jonx  G.  WHITTIEB 

HELEN  POTTER  has  won  a  high  place  among  public 
readers  by  her  impersonations.  SALLIE  JOY  WHITE, 
a  wide-awake  reporter  of  this  century,  says  of  her  in 
"  The  Boston  Sunday  Times,"  "  A  native  of  a  little 
village  in  New  York,  taught  in  the  district  school,  and 
fond  of  poetry,  the  first  good  reading  she  ever  heard 
was  at  the  age  of  twelve  years,  a  few  sentences  only, 
from  the  county  superintendent.  While  yet  in  her 
teens  she  went  South  as  a  teacher,  and  returned  to 
spend  some  time  with  a  cultivated  family  of  relatives 
in  Michigan.  She  went  to  New  York,  and  studied  with 
the  Vandenhoffs ;  but,  not  fully  satisfied  with  their 
methods,  she  came  to  Boston,  and  studied  with  Prof. 
Leonard.  After  this  she  was  a  teacher  of  elocution 
four  years  in  a  seminary  for  young  ladies,  near  Oswego, 
when  she  was  elected  to  fill  Mrs.  Vandenhoffs  place  at 
Packer's  Institute,  Brooklyn.  After  two  years  she  left 
that  situation,  and  devoted  herself  partially  to  litera- 
ture and  normal  work ;  being  employed  by  the  States 
of  New  York  and  Vermont  as  a  teacher  of  teachers. 
Miss  Potter,  by  invitation,  read  a  paper  before  the  First 
Woman's  Congress,  held  in  New  York  in  1873,  on  In- 
dustrial Art ;  a  subject  on  which  she  has  since  lectured 
to  large  audiences  from  Portland  to  San  Francisco." 


WOMEN  AS  READERS,   ACTOES,   AND  SINGEKS.      575 

Miss  Potter  read  in  Jersey  City  in  1875,  and  "  The 
Evening  Journal "  thus  referred  to  her  and  her  readings: 
"  Miss  Potter's  appearance  upon  the  rostrum  is  impos- 
ing yet  not  obtrusive.  She  dresses  with  great  taste,  in 
dark  colors,  and  in  plain  but  elegant  style.  Her  face  is 
mobile,  and  capable  of  fashioning  itself  into  a  hundred 
varieties  of  expression  ;  but  her  voice  is  the  grand  fea- 
ture. Its  tones  are  graduated  between  the  highest  note 
of  contralto  and  the  deeper  tones  of  a  baritone ;  and 
Miss  Potter  is  thus  enabled  to  read  any  sort  of  selec- 
tion whatever,  so  far  as  voice  is  concerned.  As  to  her 
ability  to  read  correctly,  there  is  no  doubt  whatever ;  so 
that  taking  these  three  important  elements,  mobility  of 
feature,  flexibility  and  range  of  voice,  and  the  power  to 
correctly  employ  both,  we  have  an  artist  in  the  true  sense 
of  the  term.  ...  A  decided  feature  was  Miss  Potter's 
imitation  of  a  reading-class  of  twenty-five  persons. 
How  she  possessed  herself  of  the  styles  of  so  many 
youngsters,  their  peculiar  looks,  actions,  &c.,  and  was 
enabled  to  delineate  them  so  exquisitely,  is  to  be  won- 
dered at.  It  was  as  if  one  were  looking  at  and  listening 
to  a  class,  for  a  complete  difference  was  exhibited  by 
Miss  Potter  in  each  personation.  « The  Death  of  the 
Old  Squire  '  —  a  rare  old  piece  —  was  very  finely  read. 
The  entertainment  closed  with  personations  of  Mrs. 
Scott  Siddons,  Miss  Anna  Dickinson,  Miss  Olive  Logan, 
and  John  B.  Gough.  Each  character  was  given  with 
complete  change  of  dress  and  '  make-up ; '  and,  under 
Miss  Potter's  power,  the  people  she  represented  ap- 
peared to  live  before  the  audience.  Peculiar  style  of 
delivery,  of  dress,  of  motion,  of  manner,  of  voice,  of 
pronunciation,  of  gesture,  of  walk,  were  all  so  faithfully 
portrayed  that  one  absolutely  lost  sight  at  times  of  the 
fact  that  the  thing  was  only  an  imitation.  The  audi- 
ence was  delighted,  and  showed  it." 


576  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  well-known  Mother 
Goose's  Melodies  were  first  printed  in  Boston,  Mass. 
They  were  collected  by  Thomas  Fleet,  from  the  lips  of 
his  mother-in-law,  Elizabeth  Foster,  daughter  of  William 
and  Ellen  Foster,  of  Charlestown,  Mass.,  who  married 
Isaac  Goose,  of  Boston,  and  sang  these  lullabies,  partly 
learned  from  her  mother  and  partly  original,  to  her  six 
children  in  the  hearing,  perhaps,  of  her  ten  step-children, 
and  sang  them  to  her  grandson,  till  his  father  collected 
them,  in  1719,  and  long  afterwards  she  sang  them  to 
other  grandchildren,  and  their  music  has  gone  on  to  the 
present  century,  and  will  not  cease  while  babies  need  to 
be  amused  or  soothed. 

This  chapter  may  close  with  a  brief  reference  to  two 
singers;  one  —  the  half-niece  of  Charlotte  Cushman  — 
ELLEN  M.  CAKTWHIGHT,  and  the  other  ADDIE  RYAN 
COOLIDGE.  Both  were  women  best  enjoyed  as  they 
lifted  their  voices  in  the  sanctuary,  and  really  assisted 
the  congregation  to  worship  God. 

Mrs.  Cartwright  was  the  only  daughter  of  James 
Weld  and  Eleanor  Cushman,  half-sister  of  the  great 
tragedienne.  She  was  born  in  Boston,  July  27,  1815, 
and  was  a  student  at  the  Charlestown  Convent  at  the 
time  it  was  destroyed  by  a  mob.  Her  musical  ability 
was  very  great.  She  sang  at  concerts,  and  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  best  musical  clubs  in  Boston ;  but  an  early 
marriage,  and  a  family  of  twelve  children  (eleven  of 
whom  survive),  prevented  a  public  career,  for  which  she 
had  the  genius  and  the  taste.  She  spent  the  latter  por- 
tion of  her  life,  some  twenty  years  or  so,  on  the  island 
of  Nantucket,  where  she  was  organist  and  chorister  of 
the  Methodist  church,  and  displayed  the  musical  genius 
which  belonged  to  the  Cushman  family.  She  had  much 
of  the  dramatic  ability  also,  which,  being  repressed  by 
Uer  family  cares  and  religious  connections,  was  shown 


WOMEN   AS  HEADERS,   ACTOKS,   AND   SINGERS.     577 

in  aptitude  for  arranging  tableaux  and  conducting  ex- 
hibitions. Of  a  lovely  person  and  character,  she  was 
attractive  to  a  large  circle.  Her  sudden  death,  of 
pneumonia,  in  Boston  Highlands,  April  26,  1873,  was  a 
grief  to  many  far  and  near.  Her  funeral  was  attended 
from  the  Methodist  Church,  where  she  was  an  inde- 
fatigable worker,  two  clergymen  conducting  the  im- 
pressive services,  the  pulpit,  altar,  and  casket  being 
beautifully  decked  with  the  flowers  she  so  dearly  loved, 
and  the  church  crowded  with  sincere  mourners.  She 
still  lives  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  knew  her  worth ; 
and  it  is  one  of  the  sweet  anticipations  of  the  writer, 
that  heaven  will  one  day  give  back  to  her  dear  "Mothei 
Ellen." 

The  other  gifted  singer  was  the  leading  singer  in  the 
Church  of  the  Unity,  Boston,  where  she  suddenly  died. 
"Previous  to  the  removal  of  the  remains  from  the 
residence  of  Mr.  Coolidge  in  Hotel  Dearborn,  Boston 
Highlands,  the  Episcopal  service  for  the  burial  of  the 
dead  was  read  by  Rev.  J.  T.  Coolidge,  father-in-law  of 
the  deceased.  The  casket  of  rosewood  was  placed  in 
front  of  the  altar,  and  surrounded  with  elegant  floral 
offerings.  The  surviving  members  of  the  choir  of  the 
Church  of  the  Unity,  of  which  she  was  a  member,  be- 
stowed a  large  and  elegant  cross,  which  was  placed  in 
front  of  the  pastor's  desk.  A  splendid  crown,  a  lyre, 
and  several  beautiful  wreaths,  were  added  to  these 
tokens  of  love  and  esteem.  The  services  commenced 
with  the  singing  of  the  hymn  beginning,  'I  cannot 
always  trace  the  way,'  by  Howard  M.  Dow.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  Savage  then  read  appropriate  selections  from  Scrip- 
ture, at  the  close  of  which  he  read  an  original  poem, 
composed  by  himself  for  the  occasion.  It  is  as  fol- 
lows :  — 


578  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTUBY. 

'When  falls  the  night  upon  the  earth, 

And  all  in  shadow  lies, 
The  sun's  not  dead :  his  radiance  still 
Beams  bright  on  other  skies. 

And  when  the  morning  star  fades  out 
On  the  pale  brow  of  dawn, 

Though  lost  a  while  to  our  eyes, 
It  still  keeps  shining  on. 

Some  other  world  is  glad  to  see 
Our  light  that's  gone  away ; 

The  light  waose  going  makes  our  night 
Makes  somewhere  else  a  day. 

The  feet  that  cease  their  walking  here, 
Grown  weary  of  earth's  road, 

With  tireless  strength  go  travelling 
The  pathway  up  to  God. 

The  hands  whose  patient  fingers  now 
Have  laid  earth's  labors  by, 

With  loving  skill  have  taken  up 
Some  higher  ministry. 

The  eyes,  that  give  no  longer  back 

The  tender  look  of  love, 
Now,  with  a  deathless  gleam,  drink  in 

God's  beauteous  world  above. 

The  lips  whose  sweet  tones  made  us  ask 

If  angels  sweeter  sung, 
Though  silent  here,  make  heaven  glad 

With  their  melodious  tongue. 

And,  though  her  body  lies  asleep, 

Our  favorite  is  not  dead : 
She  rises  from  dark  death's  bright  birth 
"  With  joy  upon  her  head." 


WOMEN   AS   HEADERS,   ACTORS,   AKD   SINGERS.  (J 

And  she  is  just  our  loved  one  still, 

And  loves  us  now  no  less  : 
She  goes  away  to  come  again, 

To  watch  us  and  to  bless. 

And  though  we  cannot  clasp  her  hand, 

Nor  look  upon  her  face, 
Nor  listen  to  her  voice  again, 

Nor  watch  her  ways  of  grace,  — 

Still  we  can  keep  her  memory  bright, 

And  walk  the  way  she  trod, 
And  know  she  waits  until  we  come 

Up  to  the  house  of  God. 

Let  us  be  thankful  through  our  tears 

That  she  was  burs  so  long, 
And  try  to  lift  our  tones  of  grief 

To  accord  with  her  heaven-song.' 

"After  reading  these  verses,  Mr.  Savage  addressed 
the  congregation  ;  in  the  course  of  his  remarks  saying 
he  believed  that  this  universal  appointment  of  death  was 
just  as  lovely  and  as  sweet  as  this  life,  and  that  it  was 
but  a  birth  into  a  higher  happier  and  sphere  of  existence. 
What  we  call  death  is  to  this  one  a  double  immortality. 
They  all  knew  that  she  had  contributed  of  the  finest 
and  noblest  qualities  of  her  nature  to  make  them  what 
they  are.  Her  life  had  entered  into  theirs.  So^ihe  who 
had  passed  away  would  find  an  immortality  of  sweet- 
ness and  tender  memory  in  their  hearts.  She  has  risen 
and  gone  into  a  life  as  true,  as  high,  as  noble,  as  any 
we  can  conceive ;  and  she  is  to-day  the  same  loving 
friend  that  she  was  the  last  time  we  looked  into  her 
eyes." 

Her  remains  were  taken  to  Forest  Hills  Cemetery, 
where  also  the  remains  of  the  other  dear  and  noble 


580  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

singer  repose  ;  but  the  spirits  of  both  are  with  God,  for 
did  not  Jesus  say,  "  Where  I  am,  there  shall  also  my 
servant  be  "  ? 

Let  the  name  of  Miss  Ann  Aubertine  Woodward 
(Auber  Forestier)  close  this  chapter.  She  has  trans- 
lated from  the  Norwegian  admirable  prose  and  verse,  and. 
with  Professor  Anderson,  has  helped  greatly  to  intro- 
duce the  music  of  the  native  land  of  Ole  Bull,  by  het 
"  Norway  Music  Album."  She  is  the  author  of  "  Echoea 
from  Mist-Land,"  and  writes  very  acceptably  for  various 
periodicals.  She  resides  at  Wisconsin  University  in  the 
home  of  Professor  Anderson. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


WOMEN   IN   BUSINESS. 

Rebecca  Motte  —  Susanna  Wright  —  Emily  Ruggles  —  Susan  King  — 
Women  as  Retail  Traders  —  Sewing- Women  —  Women  in  Post- 
Offices  —  Women  as  Telegraphers  —  Women  in  Light-houses  — 
Women  Clerks  — The  Army  of  Workers  in  Homes,  Stores,  and 
Factories. 

"  Not  then  will  woman  idly  rest,  a  pretty  household  dove, 
When  fit  to  be  the  eagle's  mate,  and  cleave  the  clouds  ahove; 
But  strive  with  him  in  noblest  work,  and  with  him  win  at  last, 
When  all  the  struggle,  all  the  toil  and  weariness,  are  past." 

MARY  M.  CHASE. 

"  She  perceiveth  that  her  merchandise  is  good.     She  ruaketh  fine  linen,  and 
st-lleth  it."  —  PKOV.  xxx  18,24. 


THAT  woman  has  always  been  busy,  no  one  can 
deny,  and  busy  to  good  purpose  also  ;  but  that 
women  have  been  and  are  "  in  business,"  according 
to  the  technical  or  mercantile  sense  of  that  phrase, 
many  may  not  know.  Yet  it  is  true  ;  and  the  business 
capacity  of  woman  is  undeniable.  From  the  days  of 

581 


582  WOMEN   OF   TI1E   C3KTUBY. 

Abigail,  the  wife  of  Naboth,  there  have  been  shrewd, 
sensible  women,  many  of  whom  have  known  how  to 
labor  with  industry,  and  secure  a  sufficient  reward  for 
their  toil,  even  if  they  had  not  much  tact  or  skill 
outside  of  their  peculiar  trade  or  employment.  Our 
foremothers  were  not  remiss  in  business  capacity-  if  we 
may  remember  REBECCA  MOTTE,  who  in  the  first  of 
our  century,  after  the  struggle  for  independence  was 
over,  met  all  demands  against  her  husband's  estate  by 
purchasing  a  large  tract  of  rice-land  on  credit ;  and  by 
industry  and  economy  paid  all  demands,  and  accumu- 
lated a  handsome  property.  The  question  is  pertinently 
asked  nowadays  by  the  press,  "  Do  people  remember 
that  it  was  a  woman  —  Priscilla  Wakefield  —  who 
founded  the  first  savings  bank  ?  "  Says  the  "  Boston 
Journal :  "  — 

•*  The  progress  of  the  last  hundred  years,  while 
necessarily  including  much  that  is  common  to  both 
sexes,  has  been  so  marked  in  its  relations  to  woman  as 
to  stand  out  distinctly.  One  feature  of  it,  which  may 
seem  very  prosaic,  is  that  which  comes  under  the  head 
of  political  economy,  —  the  vastly  increased  number  of 
women  who  are  earning  their  own  living.  The  signifi- 
cant part  of  it  is,  that  they  have  made  this  advance 
for  themselves,  and  that  men  have  not  made  it  for 
them.  The  old  accepted  phrase  that  woman  is  main- 
tained by  father,  or  husband,  or  brother,  however 
agreeable,  was  never  only  partially  true ;  and  even 
where  it  was  so  it  was  not  always  to  the  advantage 
of  woman.  The  opening  of  facilities  for  self-support, 
caused  by  the  progress  of  modern  industry,  has  wrought 
a  great  change.  Twenty  years  ago,  of  six  millions  of 
women  above  twenty  years  of  age,  in  England  and 


WO>fEN   IN   BUSINESS.  583 

Scotland,  it  was  found  that  three  millions,  or  one-half 
of  the  whole  number,  were  special  in  the  industries, 
and  were  independent  supporters;  and  some  writers 
expressed  the  opinion  that  there  were  not  fifty  thousand 
in  England  who  were  not  in  some  manner  industrial 
and  self-sustaining.  There  are  no  census  returns  in 
this  country  to  give  a  similar  class  of  facts;  but  here 
in  Massachusetts,  at  least,  there  is  no  doubt  the  prog- 
ress is  greatly  in  advance  of  these  English  statistics. 
Woman  is  now  seen  and  welcomed  in  nearly  every 
department  of  labor  and  effort.  The  last  fifty  years 
have  seen  old  barriers  broken  down  which  can  never 
be  restored,  new  avenues  opened  which  can  never  be 
closed,  over  which  her  advancing  step  has  not  been  so 
much  the  movement  of  her  design,  as  it  has  been  the 
fulfilment  of  her  destiny.  This  hand  of  social  reform 
has  been  gentle  but  resistless. 

"Nor  has  this -great  change  in  the  social  condition 
been  effected  without  corresponding  change  in  the 
civil  rights  of  women.  Here,  too,  Massachusetts  may 
be  accepted  as  a  type  of  the  general  progress  in  the 
United  States.  By  successive  stages  in  the  legislation, 
commencing  almost  immediately  after  the  adoption  of 
.he  State  Constitution  in  1780,  followed  up  from  inter- 
val to  interval,  and  culminating  in  the  sweeping  law 
of  1874,  the  whole  force  of  these  inequalities  has  yielded 
before  the  paramount  equities  of  the  situation  ;  and 
to-day  the  personality,  the  independence,  of  woman, 
in  civil  rights  under  the  law,  stands  out  the  crowning 
achievement  of  this  Commonwealth.  '  If,'  says  Gov. 
Bullock,  '  the  making  of  the  laws  had  been  in  her  own 
hands,  I  do  not  believe  that  they  could  be  more  benefi- 
cent.' Of  like  nature  has  been  the  change  of  woman's 
relation  to  marriage.  The  immunity  of  the  sex  as  to 


584  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

person  and  property,  their  right  to  release  from  oppres- 
sion practised  under  the  certificate  of  a  wedding,  their 
opportunities  of  return  to  their  own  industry,  their 
own  affections,  and  their  own  religion,  are  advanced 
to  a  degree  which  suits  their  moral  and  social  neces- 
sities ;  which  accords  with  a  civilization  built  up  on 
the  overthrow  of  ecclesiastical  dogmatism  and  super- 
stition, too  long  received  under  the  name  of  conserva- 
tism." 

With  these  changes  have  come  rare  opportunities  for 
entering  upon  business  pursuits,  and  gaining  enviable 
prosperity ;  and  women  have  gladly  entered  these  open 
doors.  A  New  York  paper  says,  — 

"  Some  curious  facts  relative  to  various  businesses 
carried  on  in  New  York  City  by  women  are  made 
known  in  the  latest  directory  published  at  the  me- 
tropolis. 

"  The  proportion  of  men  to  women  in  business  where 
the  women  stand  as  their  own  representatives  is  4,479 
women  to  37,203  men. 

"  It  is  somewhat  surprising  to  find  a  few  women  in 
employments  supposed  to  be  entirely  monopolized  by 
and  only  fitted  for  men :  as,  for  example,  out  of  79  bil- 
liard-saloons, two  are  kept  by  women ;  and,  out  of  2,888 
lager-beer  saloons,  the  proprietors  of  51  are  women. 
There  is  one  female  blacksmith  in  a  list  of  118,  and  20 
\ady  butchers  in  the  whole  number  of  2013. 

"  There  is  also  in  the  list  of  588  names  one  woman 
druggist;  which  is  particularly  worthy  of  mention, 
because  a  druggist  must  have  a  diploma  from  a  phar- 
maceutical college,  which  have  only  just  (in  rare 
instances)  begun  to  admit  them,  and  must  also  have 


WOMEN    IN   BUSINESS.  585 

served  practically  in  a  drug-store  three  or  four  years. 
There  is  one  woman  stationer  and  bookseller,  and  52 
woman  doctors  among  1,633  physicians ;  and,  as  apropos 
in  this  connection,  it  may  be7  stated  that  out  of  152 
undertakers  two  are  women.  Only  one  woman  wood- 
engraver  is  given  among  79  males ;  but  there  are  two 
women  who  are  down  at  the  head  of  exchange-offices, 
three  who  are  pawnbrokers,  and  five  who  are  keepers 
of  livery-stables." 

In  the  early  days  of  our  nation  there  was  a  woman, 
then  aged,  whose  life  was  an  example  of  industry. 
SUSANNA  WRIGHT  was  her  honored  name.  We  are 
told  that  "  she  never  married,  but,  after  the  death  of 
her  father,  became  the  head  of  her  own  family,  who 
looked  up  to  her  for  advice  and  direction  as  a  parent ; 
for  her  heart  was  replete  with  every  kind  affection." 
And  it  is  said  also,  "  she  was  a  remarkable  economist 
of  time ;  for  although  she  had  the  constant  management 
of  a  large  family,  and  at  times  of  a  profitable  establish- 
ment, she  mastered  many  of  the  sciences,  was  a  good 
French,  Latin,  and  Italian  scholar,  assisted  neighbors 
in  the  settlement  of  estates,  and  was  frequently  con- 
sulted as  a  physician.  She  took  great  delight  in 
domestic  manufacture,  and  had  constantly  much  of  it 
produced  in  her  family.  For  many  years  she  attended 
to  the  rearing  of  silkworms,  and  with  the  silk,  which 
she  reeled  and  prepared  herself,  made  many  articles 
both  of  beauty  and  utility,  dying  the  silk  of  various 
colors  with  indigenous  materials.  She  had  at  one  tune 
upwards  of  sixty  yards  of  excellent  mantua  returned  to 
her  from  Great  Britain,  where  she  had  sent  the  raw 
silk  to  be  manufactured."  She  was  a  Quakeress,  and 
lived  more  than  fourscore  years. 


586  WOMEN   OP  THE   CENTURY. 

Women  since  her  day  have  been  engaged  in  business 
so  that  Mrs.  Dall  could  say,  "  At  the  close  of  the  Revo- 
lution, there  were  in  New  England,  and  perhaps  farther 
south,  many  women  conducting  large  business  estab- 
lishments, and  few  females  employed  as  clerks,  partly 
because  we  were  still  English,  and  had  not  lost  English 
habits.  Men  went  to  the  war  or  to  general  court ;  and 
their  wives  soon  learned  to  carry  on  the  business  upon 
which  not  only  the  family  bread,  but  the  fate  of  the 
nation,  depended,  while  our  common  schools  had  not 
yet  begun  to  fit  women  for  book-keepers  and  clerks. 

The  island  of  Nantucket  was,  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
a  good  example  of  the  whole  country.  Great  destitu- 
tion existed  on  the  establishment  of  peace.  The  men 
began  the  whale-fishery  with  redoubled  energy ;  some 
fitted  out  and  others  manned  the  ships,  while  the  women 
laid  aside  distaff  and  loom  to  attend  to  trade.  A  very 
interesting  letter  from  Mrs.  Eliza  Barney  to  Mr.  Hig- 
ginson  gives  me  many  particulars  :  "  Fifty  years  ago," 
she  says,  "  all  the  dry  goods  and  groceries  were  kept 
by  women,  who  went  to  Boston  semi-annually,to  renew^ 
their  stock.  The  heroine  of  '  Miriam  Ccffin  ' l  was  one 
of  the  most  influential  of  our  commercial  women.  She 
not  only  traded  in  dry  goods  and  provisions,  but  fitted 
vessels  for  the  merchant  service.  Since  that  time  I  can 
recall  near  seventy  women  who  have  successfully  en- 
gaged in  commerce,  brought  up  and  educated  large 
families,  and  retired  with  a  competence.  It  was  the 
influence  of  capitalists  from  the  continent  that  drove 
Nantucket  women  out  of  the  trade ;  and  they  only 
resumed  it  a  few  years  since,  when  the  California  emi- 
gration made  it  necessary.  Five  dry-goods  and  a  few 
large  groceries  are  now  carried  on  by  women,  as  also 
1  A  novel  of  great  local  interest,  and  recently  republished. 


WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  587 

one  druggist-shop."1  The  names  of  s>)me  of  those 
early  shopkeepers  were  once  familiar  to  the  writer,  and 
their  stores  were  very  attractive.  RACHEL  EASTON, 
ABBY  BETTS,  LYDIA  HOSIER,  NANCY  HUSSEY,  those 
names  chime  with  the  memories  of  childhood  very  pleas- 
antly. Since  then  the  dear  old  island  has  had  many 
ether  women  storekeepers,  —  STJSAN  A.  RAND  (since 
physician),  HANNAH  FOSDICK  (a  faithful  abolitionist), 
LYDIA  ELKINS,  HARRIET  MACY,  SOPHIA  A.  RAY  (a 
mother  in  Israel),  EUNICE  PADDOCK,  MARY  F.  COLE- 
MAN,  SARAH  and  MARY  P.  SWAIN,  and  others  whose 
names  do  not  readily  present  themselves,  but  all  wor- 
thy business  women  of  the  century. 

Mrs.  Dall  says,  "  In  Pennsylvania  the  Quaker  view 
of  the  duties  and  rights  of  women  contributed  to  throw 
many  into  trade.  One  lady  in  Philadelphia  transferred 
a  large  wholesale  business  to  two  nephews,  and  died 
wealthy.  I  saw  a  letter  the  other  day,  which  gave  an 
interesting  account  of  two  girls  who  got  permission 
there  to  sell  a  little  stock  in  their  father's  shop.  One 
began  with  sixty-two  cents,  which  she  invested  in  a 
dozen  tapes ;  the  other  had  three  dollars.  In  a  few 
years  they  bought  their  father  out.  The  little  tape- 
seller  married,  and  carried  her  husband  eight  thousand 
dollars ;  while  the  single  sister  kept  on  until  she  had 
accumulated  twenty  thousand  dollars,  and  took  a  poor 
boy  into  partnership.  .  .  .  Mrs.  Barney  tells  us  that 
failures  were  very  uncommon  in  Nantucket  while 
women  managed  the  business  ;  and  some  of  the  largest 
and  safest  fortunes  in  Boston  were  furnished  by  women. 
...  It  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  our 
female  merchants  —  Martha  Buckminster  Curtis  —  who 
planted,  in  Framingham,  the  first  potatoes  ever  set  in 

i  The  College,  the  Market,  and  the  Court,  published  in  1867. 


588  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

New  England.  .  .  .  Ann  Bent  entered  on  her  business 
career  so  long  ago  as  1784,  at  the  age  of  sixteen.  She 
first  entered  a  crockery-ware  and  dry-goods  firm." 

Mrs.  Dall  gives  several  very  interesting  pages  of 
statistics  concerning  the  various  manufactures  in  which 
Women  are  engaged.  As,  for  want  of  leisure,  the  late 
census  has  not  been  examined,  the  latest  statistics 
cannot  here  be  given.  It  is  hoped  some  other  woman 
will  take  the  hint,  and  give  her  readers  a  full  account. 

Women  can  engage  successfully  in  the  dry-goods 
business.  One  example  is  here  given  as  falling  under 
the  writer's  personal  observation :  — 

EMILY  RUGGLES  of  Reading,  Mass.,  born  hi  Dor- 
chester, July  16, 182T,  has  been  emphatically  a  woman 
of  business.  For  twenty-one  years  she  has  conducted 
a  dry-goods  store,  buying  her  goods  as  well  as  selling 
them,  keeping  her  own  books,  directing  her  assistants, 
and  winning  the  deserved  respect  of  the  community 
for  her  integrity  and  fair  dealing,  and  without  once 
suspending  or  becoming  involved.  On  the  contrary, 
she  has  proved  herself  a  successful  merchant,  and  has 
more  recently  engaged  in  the  real  estate  business,  pur- 
chasing land  for  individuals  and  corporations.  She 
secured  the  land  on  which  the  Christian  Union  Church 
now  stands,  in  a  business-like  manner  which  would 
have  challenged  the  admiration  of  any  honorable  real- 
estate  agent,  and  refused  to  take  advantage  of  circum- 
stances in  the  transaction  that  might  have  put  money 
in  her  pocket  instead  of  saving  the  treasury  of  the 
church.  She  is  now  owner  of  a  tract  of  land  near 
Lake  Quannapowitt,  and  has  laid  out  streets,  and 
arranged  building-lots,  showing  that  a  woman's  specu- 
lations in  real  estate,  or  rather  a  woman's  foresight 
and  business  capacity,  are  equal  to  emergencies,  and 


WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  580 

worthy  of  success.  Miss  Ruggles  is  a  descendant  from 
Peregrine  White  (the  first  child  born  among  the  Pil- 
grims) on  her  mother's  side ;  dnd  on  her  father's  is  a 
relative  of  the  family  of  Tafts,  as  well  as  Ruggles. 
Her  father  was  a  cabinet-manufacturer  for  many  years 
(he  made  the  coffin  in  which  Pres.  John  Adams  was 
buried,  and  helped  place  the  body  in  it) ;  and  the 
daughter  inherits  his  mechanical  ability  to  a  large 
degree.  During  the  war  Miss  Ruggles  was  actively 
engaged  in  the  Sanitary  Commission  home  work,  and 
was  the  agent  of  the  Commission  in  her  town.  She  has 
always  felt  a  deep  interest  in  the  reforms  of  the  day, 
was  one  of  the  earliest  women  in  Massachusetts  elected 
to  the  office  of  school  committee,  and  is  a  shining  ex- 
ample of  the  fact  that  women  who  have  business  capa- 
city do  not  need  to  beg  or  starve,  and  can  gain  the 
approval  of  all  intelligent  lovers  of  humanity  by  the 
straightforward  course  which  integrity  and  honesty 
prompt.  Judge  Alphonso  Taft,  her  relative  (late 
Secretary  of  War,  and  now  Attorney -General),  in 
writing  to  her  concerning  a  genealogical  record  of  their 
family,  said,  "  I  admire  your  perseverance  in  business. 
I  think  you  must  be  one  of  those  women  who 
believe  in  women  sharing  in  the  responsibilities  of 
business,  and  even  in  those  of  political  life,  and  in 
enlarging  the  sphere  of  woman's  activity.  If  so,  I 
agree  with  you.  I  am  for  the  enlargement  and  exten- 
sion of  women's  legal  and  political  power.  I  would 
have  them  share  in  the  elective  franchise.  My  wife 
and  I  concur  in  these  general  views.  It  may  be  that 
you  have  not  got  so  far  along;  but  your  carrying  on  a 
mercantile  business  for  so  long  a  time  looks  favorable." 
Mention  might  be  made  of  COLUMBIA  LANE  and  her 
three  sisters,  who  have  been  successful  in  the  milliu- 


590  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

ery  and  fancy-goods  business  for  many  years  in  Maine 
and  in  Beverly,  Mass.  Other  women  in  the  same  town 
where  they  have  conducted  business  have  also  been 
thus  engaged,  some  of  them  having  been  apprentices  or 
helpers  in  their  stores,  learning  from  these  women  of 
integrity  the  methods  of  conducting  business  honorably 
and  successfully. 

CHARLOTTE  L.  NEWTON  of  Gambridgeport,  Mass., 
was  four  years  an  official  of  the  Boston  Custom  House, 
and  was  also  a  successful  dry-goods  clerk,  and  real- 
estate  dealer  for  some  time. 

Mrs.  PEASELY  of  Winoua,  Minn.,  is  engaged  in  the 
novel  work  of  cutting  gravestones.  "  She  works  in  a 
marble-shop,  with  a  number  of  men  ;  takes  the  stone  in 
the  rough  as  they  do,  works  as  much  as  they,  and  earns 
three  dollars  a  day.  Why  does  she  do  it?  Because 
when  her  husband  died  she  was  not  able  to  buy  a  head- 
stone complete,  but  bought  a  marble  slab  in  the  rough, 
and  finished  it;  and  it  can  be  seen  standing  at  the 
head  of  his  grave,  near  the  village  of  Henderson,  Minn. 
She  then  carved  some  work,  and  took  it  to  a  marble- 
worker  in  the  city  of  Minneapolis,  and  told  him  she 
was  a  widow  with  a  family  of  children,  and  wanted 
work.  The  dealer  examined  the  work,  said  that  it 
was  good,  and  that  he  would  give  her  work  on  two 
conditions :  first,  she  should  promise  not  to  work  for 
any  other  dealer  in  the  city ;  and,  second,  she  should 
promise  not  to  open  business  on  her  own  account  in 
the  city.  She  said  she  would  agree  to  this  if  he  would 
agree  to  keep  her  in  work  all  the  time.  But  this 
'  lord  of  creation '  would  agree  to  nothing  of  the  kind. 
She  went  to  St.  Paul,  and  there  got  work  .without 
special  agreements,  and  is  now  in  Wiuona."  So  says 
"  The  Woman's  Journal." 


WOMEN  IN  BUSINESS.  591 

In  the  "New  Century"  for  Oct.  14,  1876,  is  a  pleas- 
ant reference  to  a  new  business  for  women,  —  the 
making  of  fern-leaf  mottoes,  —  tihe  idea  of  which  enter- 
prise originated  with  Mrs.  ANNA  K.  WEAVER,  who  is 
now  laboring  under  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  in  Bogota,  South  America.  Hundreds  of 
women  are  now  assisting  in  the  construction  and  sale 
of  these  lovely  mottoes,  Mrs.  I.  R.  NICHOLAS  of  Phila 
delphia  being  at  their  head. 

It  should  have  been  mentioned  earlier  that  women 
have  had  a  hundred  years  of  experience  in  retail  trade, 
and  also  in  horticulture,  and  in  the  relation  of  business 
copartnership,  as  Mr.  Higginson  showed  by  ancient 
advertisements,  in  "  The  Woman's  Journal." 

In  the  business  of  raising  bees,  Mrs.  ELIZA  TTJPPEB 
was  very  successful  until  serious  illness  interfered  with 
her  labors ;  but  she  toiled  long  enough  to  prove  that 
bee-culture  can  be  accomplished  by  women. 

"  The  Woman's  Journal "  says,  "  Two  girls  in  a 
small  town  in  Ohio  run  a  blacksmith's  shop  all  by 
themselves.  They  dress  in  bloomer  costume,  and  shoe 
horses  just  as  a  man  does." 

The  name  of  SUSAN  KING  must  not  be'  omitted, 
since  she  is  the  prime  mover  of  the  Woman's  Tea 
Company  in  New  York  City,  of  which  Mme.  DEMO- 
KEST  is  the  president.  Miss  King  accumulated  a  large 
fortune  by  real-estate  transactions,  and  then  started 
her  present  business.  She  has  been  herself  to  China, 
and  examined  teas,  and  made  the  acquaintance  of  the 
merchants,  and  is  now  doing  a  successful  business  on 
Broadway,  setting  an  example  of  industry  and  enter- 
prise. 

Among  the  intelligent  and  successful  business  women 
of  the  century  may  be  numbered  Mrs.  CHAKLOTTB 


592  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

FOWLER  WELLS,  the  sister  of  the  phrenologists  Fowler, 
and  wife  of  S.  R.  Wells,  the  well-known  writer  and 
publisher  of  valuable  hygienic  works.  Several  times 
her  foresight  and  business  ability  saved  the  firm  of 
Fowler  and  Wells  from  failure  ;  and  to  her  at  first  her 
famous  brothers  were  indebted  for  their  success.  She 
was  a  teacher,  then  a  lecturer  on  phrenology,  then 
engaged  as  a  working-partner  in  the  business  of  the 
enterprising  firm  of  Fowler  and  Wells,  —  the  business 
which  since  the  death  of  her  husband  she  has  con- 
ducted with  marked  ability. 

"The  accumulation  of  property  by  the  late  Mrs. 
MATHER  REMINGTON  of  Fall  River  was  something  re- 
markable. Although  she  was  in  business  but  a  few 
years,  and  at  that  almost  a  girl,  and  without  assist- 
ance, she  left  an  estate  which  will  reach  nearly  forty 
thousand  doUars.  Her  investments  were  shrewdly 
made,  and  were  often  exceedingly  remunerative.  As 
a  shrewd  buyer  of  goods,  she  had  no  superior  in  the 
market." 

Among  the  women  in  business,  surely  are  the 
renowned  factory-girls,  some  of  whom,  like  LUCY 
LARCOM,  have  become  notable  in  other  ways  than  at 
the  loom.  Mrs.  HARRIET  H.  ROBINSON  wrote  for 
"The  Boston  Journal"  a  fine  sketch  of  Lowell,  in 
which  occurred  these  paragraphs  :  — 

THE  FIRST  FACTORY  GIRLS. 

"  Troops  of  young  girls  came  by  stages  and  baggage- 
wagons  ;  and  men  were  employed  to  go  into  other 
States  and  Canada,  and  collect  them  at  so  much  a  head, 
and  deliver  them  at  the  factories. 

"  A  very  curious  sight  these  country  girls  presented 
to  young  eyes  accustomed  to  a  more  modern  style 


WOMEN  IN   BUSINESS.  593 

of  things.  When  the  large  covered  baggage-wagon 
arrived  in  front  of  a  block  on  the  corporation,  they 
would  descend  from  it,  dressed  in  various  and  outland- 
ish fashions  (some  of  the  dresses,  perhaps,  having  served 
for  best  during  two  generations),  with  hair  done  up  in 
(to  us)  almost  impossible  ways,  and  with  their  arms 
brimfull  of  bandboxes  containing  all  their  worldly 
goods.  Here  let  me  pay  a  passing  tribute  to  that  obso- 
lete appendage  to  a  lady's  baggage,  —  the  bandbox. 
It  has  a  New  England  history  almost  coeval  with  that 
of  Lowell.  It  began  to  be  made  in  perfection  about 
fifty  years  ago  in  Jaffrey,  N.H.,  by  a  woman  named 
HANNAH  DAVIS,  who  manufactured  the  first  nailed 
band-boxes  in  the  country,  and  made  herself  rich  thereby. 

"  Another  Hannah  —  HANNAH  MORE  —  always  trav- 
elled with  the  immortal  bandbox,  besides  her  'great 
bag,  little  bag,  basket,  bundle.'  The  bandbox  was 
made  of  all  sizes,  many  of  them  being  large  enough  to 
hold  quite  a  wardrobe.  Now  the  omnivorous  *  Sara- 
toga '  has  swallowed  them  all  up,  and  it  is  my  fate  to 
chronicle  the  '  last  of  the  bandbox.' 

"  These  country  girls,  as  they  were  called,  had  queer 
names,  which  added  to  the  singularity  of  their  appear- 
ance. Samantha,  Trifeny,  Plumy,  Elgardy,  and  Florilla, 
were  common  among  them.  They  soon  learned  the 
ways  of  the  new  place  to  which  they  had  come ;  and 
after  paying  for  their  transportation  they  used  their 
earnings  to  re-dress  themselves,  and  in  a  little  while 
were  as  stylish  as  the  rest;  for  they  had  good  New 
England  blood  in  them,  and  blood  tells  even  in  factory 
people.  In  time  most  of  them  changed  their  names  to 
Mrs. — something;  and  later,  when  Andrew  Jackson 
visited  Lowell,  no  peculiarity  of  dress  in  the  operatives 
was  seen  j  but  walking  four  deep  in  procession  to  hig 


594  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

honor,  clothed  in  white,  these  Lowell  factory-girls 
looked,  to  use  the  words  of  a  contemporaneous  writer, 
'  like  liveried  angels.'  " 

Mrs.  ROBINSON  has  given  us  a  pleasant  picture  of 
herself  in  the  following :  — 

THE  FIRST  STRIKE, 

Or  'turn-out'  as  it  was  called,  was  in  1836,  and  was 
caused,  of  course,  by  the  reduction  of  wages.  The  op- 
eratives were  very  indignant :  they  held  meetings,  and 
decided  to  stop  their  work,  and  turn  out,  and  let  the 
mills  take  care  of  themselves.  Accordingly  one  day 
they  went  in  as  usual ;  and  when  the  machinery  was 
well  started  up,  they  stopped  their  looms  and  frames, 
and  left.  -In  one  room  some  indecision  was  shown 
among  the  girls.  After  stopping  their  work  they  dis- 
cussed the  matter  anew,  and  could  not  make  up  their 
minds  what  to  do,  when  a  little  girl  of  eleven  years 
old  said,  '  /  am  going  to  turn  out,  whether  any  one  else 
does  or  not,'  and  marched  out,  followed  by  all  the 
others.  The  '  turn-outs  '  all  went  in  procession  to  the 
grove  on  '  Chapel  Hill,'  and  were  addressed  by  sym- 
pathizing speakers.  Their  dissatisfaction  subsided  or 
burned  itself  out  in  this  way ;  and,  though  the  authori- 
ties did  not  accede  to  their  demands,  they  returned  to 
their  work,  and  the  corporations  went  on  cutting  down 
the  wages. 

"  The  agents  of  the  corporations,  on  whom  the  man- 
tle of  Kirk  Boott's  arbitrary  power  rested,  took  some 
small  revenges  on  the  supposed  ringleaders  among  the 
strikers  ;  and,  on  the  principle  of  sending  the  weaker  to 
the  wall,  the  mother  of  this  child,  a  widow,  was  turned 
away  from  the  boarding-house  she  kept  on  one  of  the 
corporations,  for  not  'controlling  this  leading  spirit. 


WOMEN   IN  BUSINESS.  595 

The  poor  mother  was  injured  irreparably ;  but  the  child 
will  never  be  so  triumphant  again,  unless  it  is  given  to 
her  to  lead  the  army  of  equal  suffragists  to  victory." 

A  Detroit  woman  named  ANN  SMALLEY  has  moved 
buildings,  and  caused  men  in  her  employ  to  build  half 
a  mile  of  sidewalk. 

A  woman  in  Dorchester,  N.H.,  during  the  illness  of 
her  husband,  tapped  their  sugar-orchard,  cut  her  wood, 
gathered  the  sap,  and  made  about  four  hundred  pounds 
of  sugar. 

An  army  of  women  have  been  engaged  in  Wash- 
ington, in  the  various  kinds  of  business  required  in  the 
Treasury  Department,  among  them  REBECCA  WRIGHT, 
married  in  1871  to  William  Bensal.  She  was  the  little 
Quaker  lady  who  told  Sheridan  about  Early's  move- 
ments in  September,  1864,  by  means  of  which  he  sent 
Jubal  whirling  down  the  valley ;  and  for  which  he 
gave  her  a  splendid  watch  and  chain,  and  the  Govern- 
ment gave  her  a  profitable  place  in  the  Capitol.1 

"  Miss  Lillie  Slocum  is  the  owner  and  manager  of  an 
omnibus  line  in  Quincy,  Mass.,  upon  whose  neat  and 
commo*dious  vehicles  the  people  look  with  much  pride 
and  satisfaction." 

"  Mrs.  Shelton,  of  Santa  Clara  County,  was  the  first 
to  introduce  bees  into  California,  bringing  two  hives  in 
1853.  The  swarms  of  bees  that  now  fly  about  tht  Pa- 
cific Coast  are  said  to  be  the  product  of  these  two  hives. 
She  sold  one  of  them  for  $550." 

"  Elizabeth  Mary  Gill,  Cobbler.  A  white  canvas  sign 
with  a  red  border,  in  a  window  at  278  Mulberry  Street, 
New  York,  reads  as  follows  :  '  Mrs.  Gill,  Boot  and  Shoe 
Maker  ;  Repairing  Neatly  Done.'  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Mary 
Grill  was  born  in  Northampton,  England,  and  learned  her 

1  Interesting  statistics  concerning  -woman's  labor  in  Massachusetts 
uiay  be  found  iu  The  AVoman's  Journal  for  June  3,  1871. 


596  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

father's  trade.  She  married  a  cobbler  also,  and  thirteen 
years  ago  came  to  this  country.  Since  her  husband's 
death  she  has  supported  her  six  children  by  her  craft. 
She  deserves  to  be  called  a  daughter  of  America  now." 

"  Miss  Betty  Green,  of  Forsyth  County,  Ga.,  has  two 
silk  dresses  of  which  she  may  reasonably  be  proud,  she 
having  raised  the  silk-worms,  spun  the  silk,  and  woven 
and  colored  it  with  her  own  skillful  hands." 

"  In  the  West,  women  are  gradually  filling  all  depart- 
ments of  labor.  The  latest  occupation  is  that  of  Mrs. 
SAKAH  I.  AIKEN,  who  is  making  postal  currency  and 
independence  by  rowing  over  the  Mississippi,  and  trans- 
ferring passengers  from  Clinton,  la.,  to  Garden  Plain, 
HI." 

If  readers  watch  the  "  Notes  concerning  Women  " 
given  in  each  number  of  "  The  Woman's  Journal," 
they  will  be  surprised  to  find  how  many  avenues  to 
competence  are  open  to  women  in  the  kinds  of  business 
they  can  and  do  undertake. 

Very  many  women  of  our  century  are  business 
women  in  the  best  sense,  —  active,  intelligent,  upright, 
—  and  need  not  fear  that  opportunities  will  not  be  theirs 
in  the  future.  Women  are  now  successful  as  teleg- 
raphers, in  post-offices,  as  clerks  and  bookkeepers. 
And  when  we  call  into  account  the  army  of  workers  in 
homes,  stores,  and  factories,  we  must  say  that  no 
nation  ever  could  show  more  energetic  women,  —  more 
women  worthy  of  praise  for  business  capacity;  and 
this  is  not  the  extravagance  of  eulogy  and  preference, 
but  the  sober  mention  of  an  encouraging  fact. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

WOMEN  OF   FAITH. 

Christian  Mothers,  Wives,  Sisters,  and  Daughters  —  The  Praying- 
Bands  —  The  Crusaders — Lucy  Hoyt  —  "  Mabelle  "  — Mother  Tay- 
lor —  The  Bethesda  Home  —  Phebe  Palmer. 

"  It  is  sweet  to  go  when  the  Master  calls, 

If  your  work  is  all  well  done ; 
It  is  sweet  to  rest  when  the  day  is  past, 
If  that  rest  has  been  fairly  won. 

It  is  sweet  to  stand  on  the  river's  brink, 

So  close  to  the  other  side, 
That  you  see  the  loved  who  are  coming  down 

To  cross  with  you  the  tide." 

"  MABELLE  "  (Mrs.  Farmer). 

"I  thank  God  .  .  .  when  I  call  to  remembrance  the  unfeigned  faith  that  is  in 
thee,  which  dwelt  first  in  thy  grandmother  Lois  and  thy  mother  Eunice."  —  2  TIM. 
i.  3-5. 

HAD  the  limits  of  this  volume  permitted,  a  favorite 
idea,  especially  of  the  publisher  and  his  wife, 
might  have  been  elaborated  in  this  chapter.  As  it  is, 
brief  reference  must  be  given  to  the  fact  that  there  are 
multitudes  of  women  who  "  walk  by  faith,  and  not  by 
sight."  We  count  among  these  all  the  Christian 
mothers,  wives,  sisters,  and  daughters  of  our  land,  the 

597 


508  WOMEN  OF  TUB   CENTURY. 

praying-bands  in  many  churches,  the  crusaders  in  tem- 
perance ranks,  and  very  many  unknown  to  fame  who 
have  lived  long  lives  of  usefulness,  or  spent  many  years 
in  sickness,  all  the  while  sustained  by  a  serene  trust  in 
God  that  was  almost  a  walking  by  sight.  Mrs.  LUCY 
HOYT,  known  as  "Aunt  Lucy"  among  the  Universalists,, 
a  native  of  Danbuiy^  Conn.,  now  in  the  Old  Ladies' 
Home  at  Poughkeepsie,  N.Y.,  is  an  example  of  a 
woman,  almost  a  hundred  years  old,  whose  faith  has  nof 
faltered  for  more  than  half  a  century. 

Among  the  women  of  faith  who  have  helped  others 
incalculably  to  exercise  Christian  trust,  is  Mrs.  PHEBE 
PALMER,  the  author  of  "  The  Promise  of  the  Father." 
"  The  Woman's  Journal  "  of  Nov.  28, 1874,  says,  "  Mrs. 
Phebe  Palmer,  a  well-known  Methodist  lady,  who  died 
at  her  residence  in  New  York  City,  Nov.  2,  was  a  firm 
advocate  of  the  Wesleyan  doctrine  of  holiness  of  heart. 
For  thirty-six  successive  years,  meetings  were  held  in 
her  parlors  every  Tuesday  afternoon.  These  meetings 
ivitracted  many  prominent  religious  people.  Bishop 
Hanilin,  Prof,  and  Mrs.  Upham,  Pearsall  and  Hannah 
U.  Smith,  and  others  of  different  denominations,  at- 
tended when  in  the  city.  Mrs.  Palmer  travelled  exten- 
sively as  an  evangelist.  She  visited  Canada  and  the 
Provinces,  and  all  parts  of  the  West  and  South,  and 
spent  four  years  in  Great  Britain,  holding  meetings 
almost  daily.  Besides  these  abundant  labors,  she  wrote 
many  books,  and  edited  '  The  Guide  to  Holiness.' 
Some  of  her  books  have  passed  through  forty  editions. 
Her  name  will  rank  with  those  of  Mary  Fletcher  and 
Hester  Ann  Rogers,  among  Methodist  women." 

Mrs.  MIRA  CALDWELL  may  be  mentioned  in  this 
connection  as  the  editor  of  a  small  paper  devoted  to 
the  same  themes.  She  is  the  wife  of  Rev.  Augustine 
Caldwell,  a  poet  as  well  as  able  Methodist  preacher. 


WOMEN  OF  FAITH.  599 

"  MABELLE  "  (the  nom  de  plume  by  which  Hannah, 
the  gifted  wife  of  Moses  G.  Farmer,  the  inventor  and 
electrician,  is  known)  represents  one  who  has  exhibited 
the  faith  that  overcomes  in  the  years  of  sickness  she 
has  known.  When  racked  with  pain,  writing  only  at 
intervals,  with  a  pencil,  to  friends  afar,  she  was  always 
"  Happy  Mabelle."  Her  poems  would  form  a  volun  e 
of  interest ;  and  an  account  of  her  work  in  war-tim< , 
though  on  a  sick-bed,  a  record  which  would  awaken 
wonder.  She  is  a  native  of  Maine,  but  resided  long  in 
Salem,  Mass.  In  that  city  is  another  lady,  Mrs.  ELIZA 
G.  Moody,  who  has  been  a  great  sufferer  for  nearly  a 
third  of  a  century.  With  tortured  and  distorted  frame, 
the  light  of  the  soul  still  beams  with  calm  and  holy 
radiance ;  and  her  faith  is  a  lesson  to  those  in  health, 
her  cheerfulness  a  rebuke  to  those  who  murmur.  Over 
all  the  land  are  these  pale,  patient,  suffering  ones 
(Horn  BROWN  of  Nantucket  among  them),  who  with 
the  infirmities  of  age,  and  the  pangs  of  disease,  are  yet 
hopeful  and  rejoicing  in  the  Lord.  Many  of  these  suf 
fering  ones  have  wrought  wonders  in  the  way  of  scat- 
tering the  seeds  of  truth,  even  though  they  were 
confined  for  years  to  the  bed  or  room  of  sickness.  By 
word  of  exhortation,  by  written  word  of  truth  for  the 
press,  by  earnest,  fervent  prayer,  they  heeded  the 
poetic  injunction,  — 

"  Drop  them  the  seed  in  the  earth, 

And  know  the  sweetest  blessing  of  the  skies; 
See  how  a  miracle  by  faith  is  wrought : 
From  the  earth's  altar,  God  accepts  the  sacrifice." 

Thus  wrote  Mrs.  LUCY  M.  CEEEMEE,  one  of  the 
sweet  young  poets  who  have  blossomed  into  usefulness 
through  the  faith  of  the  gospel.  A  native  of  Milford, 


600  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

Conn.,  but  dwelling  most  of  her  life  in  New  Haven, 
Conn.,  she  is  just  commencing  a  career  of  usefulness, 
writing  for  various  periodicals  the  sweet,  strong  words 
which  indicate  the  living  spring  in  the  soul.  She 
should  have  been  classed  with  our  women  poets. 

Among  the  women  of  faith  was  the  wife  of  Vice- 
Pres.  Wilson.  Her  maiden  name  was  HARRIET  M. 
HOWE.  She  died  in  May,  1870.  At  the  time  of  her 
death,  Mrs.  MARY  CLEMMER,  one  of  our  best  writers, 
thus  wrote :  — 

"  Within  the  last  week  the  body  of  one  has  been  laid 
in  her  native  earth,  whose  lovely  presence  will  long  be 
missed  in  Washington.  Mrs.  Wilson,  the  wife  of  Sena- 
tor Wilson,  went  out  from  among  us  in  the  fair  May 
days;  and  the  places  which  have  known  her  here  so 
long  and  so  pleasantly  will  know  her,  save  in  memory, 
no  more  forever.  She  was  a  gentle  Christian  woman. 
I  have  never  yet  found  words  rich  enough  to  tell  all 
that  such  a  woman  is.  My  pen  lingers  lovingly  upon 
her  name.  I  would  fain  say  something  of  her  who 
now  lives  beyond  the  meed  of  all  human  praise,  that 
would  make  her  example  more  beautiful  and  enduring 
to  the  living.  For  in  profounder  intellectual  develop- 
ment, resulting  from  wider  culture  and  larger  opportu- 
nity, are  we  in  no  danger  of  losing  sight  of  those  graces 
of  the  spirit,  which,  however  exalted  her  fate,  must 
remain  to  the  end  the  supreme  charm  of  woman? 
There  is  nothing  in  all  the  universe  so  sweet  as  a 
Christian  woman,  —  as  she  who  has  received  into  her 
heart,  till  it  shines  forth  in  her  character  and  life,  the 
love  of  the  divine  Master. 

"  Such  a  woman  was  Mrs.  Wilson  in  this  gay  capital. 
When  great  sorrow  fell  upon  her,  and  ceaseless  suffer- 


WOMEN   OF  FAITH.  601 

ing,  the  light  from  the  heavenly  places  fell  upon  her 
face :  with  an  angel  patience,  and  a  childlike  smile, 
and  an  unfaltering  faith,  she  went  down  into  the  valley 
of  shadows.  She  possessed  a  keen  and  wide  intelli- 
gence. She  was  conversant  with  public  questions,  and 
interested  in  all  those  movements  of  the  day  in  which 
her  husband  takes  so  prominent  a  part.  Retiring  by 
nature,  she  avoided  instinctively  all  ostentatious  dis- 
play ;  but,  where  help  and  encouragement  was  needed 
by  another,  the  latent  power  of  her  character  sprang 
into  life,  and  then  she  proved  herself  equal  to  great 
executive  effort.  No  one  can  praise  her  so  eloquently 
as  he  who  loved  her  and  knew  her  best.  To  hear 
Senator  Wilson  speak  of  his  wife  when  he  taught  her,  a 
little  girl  in  school ;  when  he  married  her,  '  the  loveli- 
est girl  in  all  the  county; '  when  he  received  into  his 
heart  the  fragrance  of  her  daily  example;  when  he 
watched  over  her  dying,  only  to  marvel  at  the  endur- 
ance and  sweetness  and  sunshine  of  her  patience,  — is 
to  learn  what  a  force  for  spiritual  development,  what  a 
ceaseless  inspiration,  was  this  wife  to  her  husband. 
Precious  to  those  who  live  is  the  legacy  of  such  a  life  !  " 
Among  the  works  of  faith  well  known  in  Boston  is 
the  Consumptives'  Home,  carried  on  after  the  manner 
of  George  Mailer's  Orphan  House  in  Europe,  the 
laborers  asking  God  for  means  to  carry  on  their  work, 
and  receiving  aid  as  in  answer  to  prayer  ;  and  with  this 
establishment  is  connected  a  lady  known  as  a  deaconess, 
Miss  LUCY  R.  DKAKE,  of  Boston  Highlands.  "The 
Boston  Journal "  referred  to  her  in  August,  1875,  in  ao 
account  of  a  Methodist  camp-meeting  held  in  South 
Framingham,  Mass.,  as  follows  :  "  The  preacher's  place 
was  supplied  by  a  deaconess  connected  with  Dr.  Charles 
Cullis's  Grove  Hall  institution  known  as  *  a  work  of 


602 


WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTUliY. 


faith,'  —  a  lady  of  prepossessing  personal  appearance, 
and  one  of  those  whose  Christian  labors  during  the 
past  seven  years  have  entitled  her  to  the  respect  and 
even  love  of  the  many  New  Englanders  with  whom  she 
has  become  acquainted.  Miss  Drake  is  one  of  the  few 
women  who  have  attained  success  as  platform-speakers 
at  an  early  age ;  and  words  fall  from  her  lips  with  a 
sweetness  and  power  rarely  seen.  We  asked  her  in 
private  conversation  to-day  what  was  the  object  of  her 
labors  as  she  travelled  over  the  country,  having  never 
met  her  before.  Her  eyes  were  lighted  as  it  were  with 
earnestness,  and  her  entire  countenance  pictured  reli- 
gious zeal,  as  she  replied,  '  My  mission  is  to  preach 
Christ  to  the  poor.'  She  is  doing  a  noble  work ;  and  in 
this  connection  we  would  state  that  Dr.  Cullis  intends 
sending  her  as  his  first  missionary  to  India  during  the 
latter  part  of  September.  Should  her  life  be  spared 
until  that  time,  the  heartfelt  •«  God-speed '  of  many 
will  go  with  her. 

"  She  spoke  extemporaneously  of  the  great  value  of 
an  abiding  religious  experience  to  the  mother  in  her 
home,  to  the  business  man  in  his  daily  transactions 
with  the  busy  world,  and  of  its  adaptation  to  every 
station  in  life ;  closing  with  a  prayer.  Her  text  was, 
'  For  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ ;  for 
it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  ev.ery  one  that 
believeth.' 

"  Miss  Drake  also  engaged  the  attention,  and  labored 
1 9  spiritually  enlighten  the  minds,  of  the  '  lambs  of  the 
flock,'  as  she  gathered  them  into  the  children's  meeting 
one  half-hour  after  the  public  dinner  service  was  over, 
by  delineating  to  their  youthful  minds  prominent  Bible 
characters,  and  gently  speaking  to  them  of  the  little 
temptations  which  would  assail  them  in  their  onward 
journey  in  life." 


MOTHER  TAYLOR. 


WOMEN  OF   FAITH.  605 

The  "wife  of  Dr.  Cullis  is  a  woman  of  faith,  laboring 
earnestly  and  successfully  in  the  cause  of  Christ's  rep- 
resentatives, —  the  poor. 

The  devoted,  energetic  wife  of  the  widely  known 
"Father  Taylor,"  was  a  woman  of  faith.  DEBORAH 
D.  MILLETT  was  born  in  Marblehead,  Mass.,  March  13, 
1797.  She  was  a  woman  of  superior  talent,  of  quiet, 
dignified  manner,  of  true,  living  Christian  enterprise ; 
just  the  woman  to  second  all  her  husband's  efforts  for 
the  mariner.  "  When,  after  his  coming  to  Boston  to 
preach  to  seamen,  she  adopted  the  sons  of  the  ocean  as 
her  sons,  her  fidelity  was  ceaseless.  Never  did  she 
forget  them  in  the  meetings  or  at  home :  they  were 
her  accepted  burden.  A  sailor-boy  sitting  before  her 
in  meeting  was  away  from  home,  away  from  '  his 
mother,  his  wife,  his  sister,  amid  temptations ;  and  woe, 
woe  was  on  her  if  she  preached  not  to  him  the  glorious 
gospel  of  her  Lord  and  Master!  She  was  never  de- 
terred from  speaking  when  she  felt  her  Saviour  gave 
her  a  message  to  deliver.  She  uttered  it,  whether  in 
the  private  class-room  where  the  privileged  few  met  to 
note  progress,  and  to  help  each  other,  or  in  the  vestry- 
meeting  with  its  larger  audience,  or  the  church  itself 
with  its  packed  seats.  When  she  arose,  the  dignity 
and  gentleness  of  her  manner,  the  pathos  of  her  rich, 
full  voice,  soft  yet  distinct,  the  tenderness  of  intonation, 
the  lavishness  of  loving  persuasion,  the  motherhood  of 
her  soul  put  into  language  choice,  strong,  and  full  of 
the  power  of  beauty,  was  music  as  of  heaven,  with  a 
'  Thus  saith  the  Lord '  added." 

Those  who  would  know  more  of  this  saintly  woman 
are  advised  to  read  the  Memoir  of  Father  Tajdor,1  a 

1  "Written  by  Bisbop  Haven  and  Judge  Russell,  and  published  by 
B.  B.  Russell. 


606  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

volume  of  thrilling  interest.     She  passed  from   earth 
peacefully,  June  23,  1869. 

ABIGAIL  H.  WHITTIER,  the  mother  of  the  Quaker 
poet,  was  one  of  the  many  in  her  peaceful  sect  who 
walk  by  faith.  She  died  in  Amesbury,  Mass.,  not 
many  years  ago.  "  The  Friends'  Review  "  published  the 
following  from  a  letter  written  by  her  son :  "  All  that 
the  sacred  word  '  mother '  means,  in  its  broadest,  full- 
est significance,  our  dear  mother  was  to  us,  —  a  friend, 
helper,  counsellor,  companion ;  ever  loving,  gentle,  and 
unselfish.  She  was  spared  to  us  until  her  seventy- 
eighth  year,  and  passed  away,  after  a  sickness  of  about 
three  wseeks,  in  the  full  possession  of  her  faculties,  in 
exceeding  peace,  and  with  an  unshaken  trust  in  the 
boundless  mercy  of  our  Lord.  It  was  a  beautiful  and 
holy  death-bed.  Perfect  love  had  cast  out  all  fear." 
Her  daughter,  ELIZABETH  H.  WHITTIER,  was  a  graceful 
writer ;  and,  when  she  went  to  her  mother,  "  The  New- 
buryport  Herald  "  said  of  her,  «*  Regard  for  the  delicacy 
of  a  nature  which  held  itself  shrinkingly  aloof  from 
publicity  forbids  more  than  a  passing  tribute  to  its  rare 
loveliness ;  but  it  may  at  least  be  said,  that  with  her 
has  passed  away  a  life  fragrant  with  Christian  graces, 
and  beautiful  in  its  charities,  a  character  at  once 
strong  and  delicate,  and  a  mind  rich  in  those  qualities 
which  will  always  link  her  memory  with  the  fame  of 
the  deepest-hearted  poet  of  our  country  and  time." 
Is  it  any  wonder,  that,  with  such  women  about  him, 
the  great  poet  should  have  written  to  the  women  in  a 
suffrage  convention  at  Newport  in  1869,  as  follows  ?  — 

"  I  have  seen  no  good  reason  why  mothers,  wives, 
and  daughters  should  not  have  the  same  rights  of 
person,  property,  and  citizenship  which  fathers,  bus- 


WOMEN   OF  FAITH.  607 

bands,  and  brothers  have.  The  sacred  memory  of 
mother  and  sister,  the  wisdom  and  dignity  of  women 
of  my  own  religious  connection,  who  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  something  like  equality  in  rights  as  well  as 
duty,  my  experience  as  a  co-worshipper  with  noble 
and  self-sacrificing  women  as  graceful  and  helpful  in 
their  household  duties  as  they  are  firm  and  courageous 
in  their  public  advocacy  of  unpopular  truths,  the 
steady  friendships  which  have  inspired  and  strength- 
ened me,  and  the  reverence  and  respect  I  feel  for 
human  nature,  irrespective  of  sex,  —  all  these  compel 
me  to  look  with  something  more  than  acquiescence 
upon  the  efforts  you  are  making." 

Among  the  works  of  faith  similar  in  plan  and  effort 
to  the  Consumptives'  Home,  may  be  mentioned  the 
Bethesda  Home,  of  Chestnut  Hill,  Philadelphia,  which 
was  begun  in  a  small  way  in  1859,  by  Miss  ANNIE  W. 
CLEMENT,  who  had  been  engaged  in  missionary  work 
among  the  destitute  of  that  city. 

The  records  of  the  Bethesda  Home  show  that  those 
who  trust  in  God  shall  not  be  confounded.  Like 
Franck's  Mission  House  in  Germany,  Miiller's  Orphan 
House,  and  the  Consumptives'  Home,  this  institution 
for  orphans  is  sustained  by  unsolicited  gifts,  received 
in  answer  to  prayer,  as  its  founder  firmly  believes,  who 
retired  from  a  lucrative  business  to  give  herself  to  the 
work  of  benevolence.  A  graphic  description  of  the 
home  is  given  by  a  writer.  It  is  called  "  One  Romance 
of  Charity." 

"  It  was  on  a  dull  stormy  day  in  January  that  we 
made  our  way  to  the  Bethesda  Home,  through  the 
heaviest  of  country  roads.  We  had  no  difficulty  in 
finding  it,  although  it  is  quite  away  from  the  town ;  for 


608  "WOMEN   OF   THE   CENTURY. 

all  the  people  we  met  seemed  well  able  to  direct  us. 
The  building  is  situated  quite  by  itself,  although  within 
a  short  distance  of  a  railroad-station,  in  a  grove  of  cedar- 
trees.  It  is  a  large,  comfortable-looking  stone  house,  with 
a  fine  portico  in  front,  and  carriage-drive  up  to  the  door. 

"  We  were  shown  into  the  front  parlor,  which  is  n 
beautiful  room,  neatly  and  appropriately  furnished. 
After  a  little  conversation  with  Miss  Clement,  she  took 
us  to  see  the  children,  who  had  just  been  collected 
for  afternoon  school.  They  were  in  a  beautiful  school- 
room on  the  other  side  of  the  hall,  all  seated  at  their 
desks,  and  employed  with  slate  and  pencil  or  their 
books.  We  were  delighted  to  see  such  a  healthy, 
happy-looking  set  of  children,  most  of  them  under  ten 
years  of  age.  They  all  looked  so  neat,  with  clean 
faces  and  hands,  and  hair  nicely  brushed,  that  we 
thought  they  would  compare  favorably  with  many  little 
ones  who  have  fond  mothers  to  care  for  them.  As  we 
looked  at  the  clean  calico  frocks,  and  whole  but 
patched  trousers,  we  thought  what  a  work  it  must  be 
to  keep  over  thirty  children  thus  neatly  clothed,  espe- 
cially as  most  of  their  garments  are  partly  worn  ones 
Bent  by  kind  friends  of  the  Home. 

"  There  are  only  two  boys  in  the  institution,  beside 
the  babies,  —  one  aged  nine  years,  and  the  other  four. 
All  the  children  attend  Sunday  school  at  Chestnut 
Hill,  some  going  to  the  Presbyterian,  and  others  to  the 
Episcopal,  as  these  are  the  nearest  at  hand.  Those 
under  ten  years  of  age  attend  the  day-school  in  this 
room,  which  is  taught  by  Miss  Clement's  niece.  There 
are  only  three  older  girls,  who  have  been  inmates  of 
the  Home  since  it  was  first  established ;  and  these  go 
to  the  school  at  Chestnut  Hill. 

"  We  noticed  among  the  children  some  very  intelli- 


WOMEN   Off  FAITH.  611 

gent  faces ;  one  little  blue-eyed  girl,  of  about  four 
years,  especially  interested  us.  We  found  she  was  a 
new-comer,  and  had  neither  father  nor  mother.  What 
a  blessed  work  to  gather  in  these  homeless  little  ones, 
anl  tell  them  of  a  Saviour's  love,  and  bring  them  up 
to  fear  and  love  God  I 

"  We  then  went  up-stairs  to  see  the  babies.  Two 
dear  little  things,  under  a  year  old,  were  tended  by 
nice-looking  women ;  and  three  other  children,  who 
seemed  to  be  about  two  years  old,  were  playing  around 
the  room.  The  absence  of  any  thing  like  a  uniform  in 
the  dress  of  the  children  makes  this  Home  seem  more 
like  a  large  private  family  than  a  charitable  institution. 
The  babies  especially  looked  very  sweet  in  their  white 
dresses  and  scarlet  sacks,  which,  as  outgrown  gar- 
ments, had  probably  been  sent  to  them.  The  whole 
second  floor  was  so  nicely  heated  by  the  furnace,  that 
the  children  were  not  confined  to  one  room,  but  had 
the  range  of  bedrooms,  hall,  and  playroom,  which 
must  be  greatly  conducive  to  health. 

"  The  floors  are  beautifully  laid  in  hard  wood ;  and 
all  the  furniture  being  new,  and  every  thing  in  exquis- 
ite order,  we  thought  we  had  never  seen  a  more 
beautifully  kept  house.  The  bedrooms  are  all  furnished 
with  single  iron  bedsteads,  good  bedding,  and  nice 
white  quilts.  We  then  visited  the  bathroom,  where 
the  rows  of  brushes,  combs,  and  tooth-brushes,  were  in 
keeping  with  the  orderly  appearance  of  the  rest  of  the 
house.  Miss  Clement  let  us  peep  into  a  large  closet, 
where  the  bundles  of  part-worn  clothing  are  put  before 
they  are  altered  and  fixed  over  for  the  children,  as  she 
remarked,  '  You  would  not  believe  what  we  make  out 
of  these  things.'  She  then  showed  us  the  closet  where 
the  children's  Sunday  clothes  are  kept, — nice-looking 


612  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

suits  for  the  girls,  with  scarlet  hoods,  &c.,  all  made 
over,  and  from  odd  pieces  which  have  been  sent  m. 
We  also  saw  another  large  closet  where,  on  long  rows 
of  hooks,  were  hung  clean  but  faded  calicoes,  for 
common  wear. 

"  We  then  visited  the  third  floor,  which  is  furnished 
much  like  the  second,  with  single  iron  bedsteads. 
Two  communicating  rooms  on  this  floor  are  set  apart 
for  sick-nurseries,  so  that  in  contagious  diseases  the 
patient  can  immediately  be  separated  from  the  rest 
of  the  family.  The  beautiful  views  of  the  surrounding 
landscape  which  are  to  be  seen  from  the  large  and 
airy  windows  of  this  lovely  home  make  these  neat  lodg- 
ing-rooms doubly  attractive.  Here,  in  her  comfortable 
little  room,  we  saw  an  old  lady,  Mrs.  W.  She  is  over 
ninety,  and  the  only  one  left  of  those  helpless  aged 
women  who  were  received  by  Miss  Clement  when 
the  Home  was  first  opened.  She  is  quietly  resting  in 
Jesus,  and  waiting  to  be  called  to  her  heavenly  home. 

"  We  then  descended  to  the  first  floor,  and  visited 
the  dining-room  and  kitchens.  Here  every  thing  was 
like  wax-work.  The  tables  were  all  laid  in  order  for 
supper ;  and  the  kitchen  reminded  us  of  those  we  have 
seen  in  New  England,  which  looked  as  if  some  fairy 
had,  by  a  touch  of  her  wand,  put  every  thing  in  perfect 
order,  and  then  vanished.  Miss  Clement  informed  us 
that  the  older  children  help  a  great  deal  with  the  work, 
as  it  is  the  object  of  the  liome  to  instruct  them  in 
every  department  of  housework  and  in  needlework,  so 
that  at  fifteen  or  sixteen  they  may  be  able  to  get 
good  situations  in  Christian  families,  where  they  can 
earn  a  respectable  livelihood  either  as  seamstresses  or 
servants,  as  they  may  be  best  adapted.  Six  good-sized 
bedquilts  were  made  last  year,  by  children  from  nine 


WOMEN  OP  FAITH.  613 

to  twelve  years  old ;  and  six  more  were  nearly  com- 
pleted, made  by  still  younger  children.  The  law  of 
the  house  seems  to  be  industry ;  and  even  the  very  little 
ones  try  to  make  themselves  useful. 

"  Once  or  twice  a  week  they  are  invited  into  the 
parlor  to  sew,  or  play  games  ;  and  often,  on  Saturday 
afternoon,  Miss  Clement  has  t  ome  sort  of  an  entertain- 
ment for  them. 

"  Miss  Clement  is  assisted  in  her  work  by  her  niece, 
Miss  A.  L.,  who  has  for  many  years  given  herself  and 
means  to  this  blessed  work,  and  by  another  young 
friend,  who,  although  delicate,  is  of  great  assistance, 
both  in  sewing  and  in  the  care  of  the  children.  There 
are  also  three  hired  women  who  represent  the  nation- 
alities of  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Germany  ;  and  a  man- 
servant from  Switzerland.  Several  of  the  women  can- 
not speak  English ;  and  we  were  much  interested  in 
hearing  Miss  Clement  relate  that  in  their  family  wor- 
ship, which  the  women  attend,  they  sometimes  take 
part  by  prayer,  each  in  her  own  language. 

"  We  feel  it  to  be  indeed  cause  for  gratitude  that 
such  a  lovely  Christian  home  has  been  provided  for  so 
many  poor  children  who  would  otherwise  be  shut  out 
from  its  light  and  love." 

Let  the  name  be  placed  here  of  a  faithful  worker,  a 
daughter  of  Lucretia  Mbtt,  who  was  one  of  the  man- 
agers of  Swarthmore  College.  The  report  of  her  fellow- 
laborers,  December,  1874,  contains  these  words :  — 

"  ANNA  M.  HOPPER  was  not  actively  engaged  in  the 
work  of  the  college  at  its  commencement,  but  she 
entered  into  its  management  in  time  to  render  impor- 
tant service  in  organizing  and  arranging  its  various 


614  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

departments ;  and  from  that  time  forward  the  institution 
had  no  more  zealous  and  efficient  worker.  Her  strong, 
clear  intellect,  united  with  great  practical  ability,  qual- 
ified her  for  a  wide  field  of  usefulness  in  the  active 
government  of  the  college ;  and  the  trusts  committed 
to  her  were  discharged  with  the  conscientious  fidelity 
which  so  strongly  marked  her  character. 

"Her  calm,  deliberate  judgment  was  so  just  in  its 
decisions,  that  its  influence  was  felt  to  be  of  great  im- 
portance in  deciding  difficult  questions,  while  she  ever 
commended  her  own  views  by  a  courteous  respect  for 
the  opinions  of  others.  From  her  first  appointment  as 
manager,  she  was  an  active  member  of  the  Executive 
Committee,  ministering  to  the  various  needs  of  the 
college  with  a  zeal  and  energy  that  never  flagged, 
while  her  advanced  ideas  and  just  views  upon  educa- 
tional subjects  made  her  counsels  of  great  value  in  the 
department  of  instruction. 

"She  was  rarely  absent  from  our  meetings,  even 
during  the  last  year  of  her  life,  when  her  failing  health 
was  painfully  noticed  by  all.  Her  quiet,  unobtrusive 
nature  shrank  from  notice ;  but  the  powerful  influence 
of  her  character  and  example  was  felt  and  appreciated 
by  those  who  had  the  privilege  of  knowing  its  intrinsic 
dignity  and  excellence,  and  leaves  with  us  a  sorrowful 

consciousness  of  the  loss  which  we  have  sustained." 

• 

The  army  of  Christian  workers  in  the  sabbath  schools 
in  our  land  may  be  numbered  among  the  women  of 
faith  and  hope  and  love,  for  they  are  self-denying 
toilers  in  a  wide  field  of  usefulness.  Mrs.  KATHEEINB 
STABBUCK  of  Nantucket,  ELLEN  E.  MILES,  and  Mrs. 
C.  A.  Wmsmp  of  Wakefield,  Mass.,  have  displayed 
great  ability  and  fidelity  as  superintendents ;  doubtless 


WOUEN  OF  FAITH.  615 

they  are  but  types  of  many  others.  Mrs.  Winship  is  a 
scholarly  woman,  who  was  a  successful  teacher  many 
years,  and  has  written  admirably  for  the  press,  but 
not  so  much  as  her  friends  desire.  She  hs.s  displayed 
marked  genius  in  arranging  sabbath-school  concerts, 
and  holds  the  children  to  the  school  by  her  own  per- 
sonal efforts  and  magnetism.  The  noble  lessons  learned 
from  her  are  never  forgotten.  Miss  Miles  has  composed 
for  her  pupils  excellent  dramas  and  poems  for  reci- 
tation. Mrs.  Starbuck  is  now  visiting  the  Holy  Land. 

The  honor  of  starting  Sunday  schools  in  our  country 
is  generally  accorded  to  JOANNA  PRINCE  and  NANCY 
WELCH,  both  then  in  Beverly,  Mass.  The  former  was 
the  mother  of  Rev.  Prof.  C.  C.  Everett  of  Harvard 
College.  Among  the  women  of  faith,  should  be  classed 
many  of  the  workers  in  our  mission  schools  and  homes, 
who  like  LIZZIE  T.  LEWIS  of  the  Horward  Mission, 
DEBORAH  G.  BROWN,  and  CAROLINE  BARNARD,  in  the 
Five  Points  House  of  Industry,  are  serving  God  in 
caring  for  the  poor  and  forsaken.  God  bless  them 
every  one!  Let  one  more  Sunday-school  worker  be 
named.  To  her  memory  there  is  a  tablet  in  the  Uni- 
tarian Church  in  Somerville.  When  it  was  placed 
there  the  venerable  donor,  Rev.  R.  M.  Hodges,  preached 
ji  reference  to  it,  and  gave  a  brief  sketch  of  Miss 
WHITTREDGE  thus  reported :  — 

ELIZABETH  PAGE,  daughter  of  Livennore  Whittredge 
of  Beverly,  was  employed  as  a  public-school  teacher  in 
Somerville  early  in  its  history  as  an  independent  town- 
ship. A  well-cultivated  mind,  and  a  heart  in  sympathy 
with  the  requirements  of  children,  gave  her  special 
favor  and  corresponding  ability.  It  is  to  be  observed 
also,  that  an  influence  calm  and  patient,  and  religiously 


616  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

endowed,  born  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  developed  by 
the  discipline  of  a  lingering  and  mortal  disease,  secured 
without  ostentation  a  superadded  sweetness  and  charm 
to  her  character.  Her  religious  affections,  at  a  time 
when  the  counsel  of  prudence  in  subserviency  to  her 
health  would  have  rightly  checked  her  in  her  course, 
prompted  her  to  supplement  her  active  duties  on  secu- 
lar days  by  labors  of  love  on  Sundays,  in  the  direction 
of  the  Christian  culture  of  such  children  as  might  be 
placed  in  her  charge.  The  room  in  which  she  taught 
the  rudiments  of  English  knowledge  on  weekdays, 
and  the  elementary  truths  according  to  Jesus  on  the 
Lord's  Day,  was  situated  in  a  small  wooden  one-story 
building  in  Medford  Street.  My  earliest  record  in  re- 
lation to  the  friend  we  have  in  mind  is  to  this  import : 
'  April  7,  1844,  I  met  the  Sunday  school,  and  addressed 
it.  There  were  about  sixty  children.  They  have  been 
collected  together  and  cared  for  principally  by  Miss  E. 
P.  Whittredge.' 

"  Subsequently  until  the  autumn  of  that  year,  her 
residence,  and  her  duties  as  a  common-school  instructor, 
continued  in  Somerville.  Her  interest  in  the  Sunday 
school  was  undiminished  ;  but  her  labors  had  to  be 
somewhat  restricted.  Toward  the  end  of  the  summer 
months  it  could  not  be  concealed  that  the  work  of 
incurable  disease  was  approaching  its  consummation. 
Her  faith,  resting  on  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus,  was  to 
her  at  this  time  a  blessed  comfort,  and  the  foundation 
of  an  immortal  hope.  At  the  close  of  an  examination 
of  her  school  on  the  4th  of  October,  1844,  the  end  of 
her  vocation  and  of  her  residence  in  Somerville  took 
place.  She  died  Aug.  28,  1845,  of  consumption." 

Mr.  Hodges  followed  this  interesting  sketch  by  some 


MOTHER   GARFIELD. 


WOMEN  OP   FATTH.  619 

remarks  about  the  significance  and  usefulness  in  ethics 
of  monumental  devices  and  inscriptions,  as  appealing  to 
the  sympathies  and  exciting  the  aspirations  of  those 
beholding  them.  That  monument  which  commemo- 
rates a  noble  deed  or  a  religious  work  is  more  valuable 
than  those  which  mark  the  past  greatness  of  a  warlike 
hero.  Then  remarking  that  those  who  aspire  high 
must  have  a  high  object  to  which  to  aspire,  he  passed 
on  to  apply  his  remarks  to  the  subject  of  Sunday-school 
work,  and  closed  his  discourse  with  some  very  appropri- 
ate and  interesting  remarks  as  to  his  own  faith  in  the 
religion  of  the  New  Testament  as  a  religion  qualified 
to  save  and  to  elevate  mankind. 

Among  the  women  whose  works  proved  her  strong 
faith  may  be  mentioned  MRS.  ELIZA  GARFIELD,  who 
was  a  Ballon  (a  niece  of  Hosea  Ballon,  the  celebrated 
Universalist  preacher),  and  who  became  the  wife  of 
Abram  Garfield  in  1819,  and  the  mother  of  several  chil- 
dren, the  youngest  of  whom  was  our  martyred  President, 
James  A.  Garfield.  Removing  with  her  husband  to  the 
West  in  times  when  pioneer  work  was  to  be  done,  she 
labored  hard  and  long,  and  being  left  a  widow  with  a 
dependent  family,  she  exerted  herself  beyond  the  usual 
need  even  of  pioneer  wives,  and  performed  almost  incred- 
ible deeds  of  heroic  devotion  to  her  duty  as  a  mother, 
caring  for  her  children's  moral  and  phvsical  welfare,  and 
gaining  for  them  their  daily  bread  by  hand  labor  of  the 
hardest  kind.  She  appreciated  the  advantages  of  educa- 
Jbion,  and  encouraged  the  son  who,  was  afterward  to  be 
President,  to  obtain  the  knowledge  which  she  felt  would 
be  power,  and  she  had  no  reason  to  repent  of  her  efforts. 
[n  all  her  privations  and  labors  she  was  sustained  by  a 
strong,  abiding  Christian  faith,  which  had  its  perfect 
work  and  crown,  not  alone  when  she  saw  her  son  exalted 
to  the  highest  place  in  his  native  land,  but  when  she 


620  WOMEN  OF  THE  CEXTURY. 

learned  of  his  Christian  patience  and  fortitude  during 
those  weary  days  of  suffering,  and  felt  at  last  that  his 
was  the  triumphant  death  of  the  trusting  child  of  God, 
whom  she  had  trained  for  labor  or  sacrifice,  for  a  faith 
revealed  in  works  and  for  a  crown  of  glory. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

WOMEN   INVENTORS. 

The  Cotton-Gin —  The  Sifter  —  Woman's  Industries  and  Inventions 
—  Inventions  suggested  by  Accident. 

"  Whatever  strong-armed  man  hath  wrought,  whatever  he  hath  won, 
That  goal  hath  woman  also  reached,  that  action  hath  she  done." 

MARY  M.  CHASE. 

"  She  crieth  at  the  gates,  ...  I  wisdom  dwell  with  prudence,  and  find  out 
knowledge  of  witty  inventions."  —  PROV.  viii.  3, 12. 

THE  question  is  sneeringly  asked  sometimes,  Can  a 
woman  invent  ?  The  great  Centennial  Exposition 
answered  the  question  satisfactorily  to  the  believer  in 
woman's  capabilities ;  and  those  who  saw  and  heard 
the  dish-washer  and  other  women  who  were  displaying 
their  own  inventions  there  will  not  soon  forget  them. 
Mrs.  MATILDA  J.  GAGE,  herself  an  active,  intelligent 
worker  of  .the  century,  in  publishing  a  series  of  centen- 
nial letters  to  "  The  Fayetteville  Recorder,"  gives  the 
following  interesting  statements :  — 

621 


622  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

"  Let  the  Woman's  Pavilion  gather  all  it  can  of 
woman's  work,  it  will  still  fall  very  far  short  of  an  accu- 
rate representation  of  woman's  industries  and  inventions, 
because  most  of  the  large  manufacturing  establishments 
are  owned  by  men ;  and,  although  largely  employing 
women,  the  work  done  in  these  establishments  owned 
by  men  will  be  entered  in  men's  names.  For  instance, 
Lynn,  the  great  shoe-mart  of  the  country,  employs  more 
women  than  men  in  the  manufacture  of  shoes :  yet,  as 
no  woman  owns  such  an  establishment,  all  such  work 
exhibited  at  the  Exposition  will  come  in  under  men's 
names.  So  also  of  the  numerous  cotton-manufactories 
where  prints  and  muslins  and  cloths,  both  bleached  and 
unbleached,  are  made:  none  of  these  will  appear  as 
woman's  work.  The  sewing  silks  and  dress  silks,  the 
hat  and  cap  manufacturers,  the  broadcloth  makers,  the 
hoop-skirt  and  corset  firms,  the  large  clothing  establish- 
ments, employ  women  operatives  to  a  great  extent :  yet 
the  work  will  be  entered  in  men's  names. 

"  Women  are  burnishers  of  gold  and  silver,  electro- 
platers,  and  bronzers,  watch-case  makers,  and  also  do 
the  finer  part  of  watches ;  are  painters  of  china,  painters 
of  tiles,  do  work  in  holly-wood,  manufacture  mirror- 
frames,  table-tops,  scones ;  are  taxidermists,  engravers, 
painters,  sculptors.  Most  of  this  work  will  be  exhibited 
in  the  general  departments  under  men's  names.  The 
mechanical  exhibitions  from  Europe  will  be  largely  of 
woman's  work.  The  finest  Swiss-made  watches  are 
manufactured  by  women ;  the  largest  maker  of  cham- 
pagne in  the  world  is  a  woman ;  'tis  a  woman  who 
manufactures  the  famous  Erard  piano  ;  the  largest  flax- 
mill  in  Europe  is  owned  by  a  woman ;  the  delicate 
thread-weaving  of  the  Old  World  is  woman's  work,  as 
also  the  wonderful  lace-making  and  embroidery,  valued 


WOMEN   INVENTOES.  623 

higher  than  the  most  piecious  stones, —  these  are  all 
woman's  work. 

"  Many  of  woman's  inventions  have  been  patented 
under  men's  names.  The  largest  foundry  in  the  city 
of  Troy  is  run  to  manufacture  horseshoes,  one  of  which 
is  turned  out  every  three  seconds.  The  machine  which 
does  this  work  was  invented  by  a  woman;  but  the 
manufacture  is  carried  on  under  a  man's  name,  and  will 
be  exhibited  as  man's  work.  A  Troy  foundry-owner 
once  told  me  the  best  stove  he  ever  knew  was  invented 
by  a  woman,  but  the  patent  was  taken  out  in  a  man's 
name.  The  invention  of  the  cotton-gin,  which  revo- 
lutionized the  industries  of  the  world,  was  due  to  a 
woman,  Mrs.  Greene,  though  the  work  was  done  and 
the  patent  taken  out  by  Eli  Whitney.  One  of  the 
earliest  mowing-machines  was  perfected  by  a  lady  of 
my  acquaintance,  now  over  eighty  years  of  age,  who 
aided  her  husband  in  bringing  that  and  a  clover-cleaner 
to  perfection.  This  was  a  New  Jersey  woman:  still 
another  New  Jersey  woman  is  now  living,  who  invented 
the  attachment  to  the  mowing-machine,  whereby  the 
knives  are  thrown  out  of  gear  whenever  the  driver 
leaves  his  seat,  thus  lessening  the  liability  to  accident. 
The  first  large  establishment  in  the  country  for  the 
manufacture  of  buttons,  the  Willistons',  was  due  to  a 
woman,  though  it  was  run  under  a  man's  name.  The 
self-fastening  button  is  a  woman's  invention.  The 
machine  for  making  satchel-buttoned  paper  bags  was  a 
woman's  invention,  and  a  very  important  one  at  that ; 
one  that  had  long  been  tried  for  by  men  without  suc- 
cess. Before  the  failure  of  Ames  &  Co.,  these  machines 
were  manufactured  at  the  works  of  that  company. 

"  Of  improvements  in  sewing-machines,  woman  has 
invented  a  great  number,  as  quil ting-attachments. 


624  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUKY. 

threading  while  in  motion,  attachments  for  seeing  sails, 
&c.  Elevators,  lubricating  felt  for  car-wheels  (a  most 
important  invention),  volcanic  furnaces  for  smelting 
ores,  steamer  screws,  machinery  for  cotton-factories, 
wood-sawing  machines,  musical  instruments,  syllable 
type,  submarine  telescopes,  looms  capable  of  doing  three 
times  the  work  of  ordinary  looms,  are  among  the  various 
inventions  of  women  of  this  country,  that  will,  to  a 
great  extent,  be  exhibited  as  man's.  The  recent  inven- 
tions of  two  of  our  own  townswomen  have  been  taken 
out  in  their  own  names,  and,  I  trust,  will  find  place  in 
the  Woman's  Pavilion. 

"  Most  of  the  designs  for  carpets,  oil-cloths,  calico, 
and  wall-paper,  are  woman's  work,  as  are  also  designs 
for  the  embossing  of  paper,  monograms,  &c. ;  but  of  this 
work  but  little  will  be  credited  to  them,  for  reasons  I 
have  above  given.  Women  need  to  become  something 
more  than  laborers,  something  more  than  mere  hands, 
in  order  to  secure  just  recognition  of  their  industry: 
they  need  to  themselves  become  heads  of  establish- 
ments, to  own  the  manufactories,  as  well  as  to  have 
designed  the  work  done  in  them.  So,  at  the  best,  the 
Woman's  Pavilion  will  but  poorly  represent  the  indus- 
tries of  the  women  of  this  country  and  of  the  world." 

Regretting  that  the  names  of  all  these  women  invent- 
ors cannot  be  placed  here,  it  is  with  great  satisfaction 
the  facts  are  given.  The  pleasant  call  of  Mrs.  LUCY 
SAWYER  on  the  writer  with  her  flour-sifter  (the  best) 
for  which  she  had  received  a  patent,  as  it  sifted  "  up 
through  the  meshes,"  is  not  forgotten. 

If  we  would  value  these  inventions,  and  those  with 
which  our  brothers  have  blessed  the  century  now  clo* 
ing,  we  have  only  to  turn  the  pages  of  historj^,  or  ask 


WOMEN   LNYENTOES.  625 

some  venerable  grandparent  about  the  household  con- 
veniences of  a  hundred  years  ago.  Dr.  Nichols  in  the 
"  Boston  Journal  of  Chemistry "  says,  "  Our  fathers 
were  groping  in  almost  outer  darkness,  so  far  as  a 
knowledge  of  the  sciences  was  concerned ;  and  but  little 
progress  had  been  made  in  invention  and  the  arts. 
Scarcely  one  of  the  modern  contrivances  for  cooking, 
and  for  warming  and  lighting  dwellings,  was  known. 
Not  a  pound  of  coal  or  a  cubic  foot  of  illuminating  gas 
had  been  burned  in  the  country.  No  iron  stoves  were 
used ;  and  no  contrivances  for  economizing  heat  were 
employed  until  Dr.  Franklin  invented  the  iron  frame 
fireplace  which  still  bears  his  name.  All  the  cooking 
and  warming  in  town  and  country  were  done  by  the 
aid  of  fire  kindled  upon  the  brick  hearth,  or  in  the 
brick  oven.  Pine-knots  or  tallow  candles  furnished 
the  light  for  the  winter  evenings ;  and  sanded  floors 
supplied  the  place  of  rugs  and  carpets.  The  water 
used  for  household  purposes  was  drawn  from  deep  wells 
by  the  creaking  '  sweep ; '  and  it  is  a  curious  circum- 
stance that  both  the  well,  and  the  building  meeting  the 
necessities  of  a  water-closet,  were  often  at  long  distances 
from  the  house.  In  a  cold  windy  night  in  winter,  to 
be  called  toward  one  of  them  was  something  dreadful 
to  think  of.  No  form  of  pump  was  used  in  this  coun- 
try, so  far  as  we  can  learn,  until  after  the  present  cen- 
tury. There  were  no  friction-matches  in  those  early 
days,  by  the  aid  of  which  a  fire  could  be  speedily 
kindled  ;  and  if  the  fire  went  out  upon  the  hearth  over 
night,  and  the  tinder  was  damp  so  that  the  spark 
would  not  catch,  the  alternative  remained  of  wading 
through  the  snow  a  mile  or  so,  to  borrow  a  brand  of  a 
ueighbor.  Only  one  room  in  any  house  was  warmed, 
unless  some  of  the  family  were  ill ;  in  all  the  rest  the 


626  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

temperature  was  zero  during  many  nights  in  winter. 
The  men  and  women  of  a  hundred  years  ago  undressed 
and  retired  to  their  beds  at  night  in  an  atmosphere 
colder  than  that  of  our  modern  barns  and  wood-sheds, 
and  never  complained.  No  hot-air  furnaces  or  steam- 
pipes  tempered  the  wintry  air  in  their  dwellings ;  and 
they  slept  soundly  in  the  cold.  The  cooking  was  very 
simple,  and  the  nature  of  the  food  plain  and  substantial. 
But  few  dishes  were  seen  upon  the  table ;  pork  and 
cabbage,  corn  bread,  and  milk,  with  bean-porridge, 
were  the  every-day  forms  of  food  consumed." 

Yes,  the  times  are  changed,  as  the  following  from  a 
recent  writer  shows :  — 

"  In  the  Woman's  Pavilion  the  exhibits  are  all  made 
by  themselves ;  even  the  running  of  the  Baxter  portable 
engine  is  done  by  Miss  ESBIA  ALLISON.  Her  choice  of 
this  specialty  comes  from  her  delight  in  the  study  of 
natural  philosophy,  which  gave  her  a  fondness  for 
machinery,  developed  into  its  comprehension  through 
the  assistance  of  her  brother,  a  member  of  the  Engineer 
Corps  of  the  United  States  Navy.  Her  means  being 
limited,  she  must  follow  some  remunerative  occupa- 
tion ;  and  hence  she  accepted  this  position.  Although 
hitherto  she  had  nothing  but  theoretic  information  of 
steam  processes,  she  believed  it  the  part  of  some  one 
of  her  sisters  to  enter  a  *  new  departure '  requiring  as 
much  knowledge  and  skill  for  its  accomplishment,  and 
carrying  with  it  as  great  honor,  as  teaching  school, 
keeping  books,  operating  sewing-machines,  copying, 
&c.  After  the  exhibition  she  will  leave  this  business, 
which  she  has  carried  on  in  the  perfection  of  tidiness 
and  grace  of  manner,  and  start  a  literary  magazine  in 
San  Francisco.  We  could  wish  that  some  of  our  gentle 


WOMEN  INVENTORS.  627 

experts  might  have  assisted  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Medical  Society,  and  joined  in  their 
learned  addresses  upon  what  so  intimately  concerned 
them. 

"  Feminine  biographies  teem  with  the  desire  of  their 
subjects  for  enlarged  opportunities.  They  have  ever 
helped  to  provide  means  for  what  they  could  not  share. 
The  oldest  scholarship  at  Harvard,  founded  in  1785, 
was  by  JOANNA  ALFORD.  There  are  ten  others  by  fair 
donors,  of  which  the  annual  income  is  $2,340.  Meri- 
torious boys  are  yearly  aided  there  to  the  amount  of 
$24,500. 

"  MARGARET  DRAPER  of  Boston  conducted  the  first 
newspaper  in  America.  The  original  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  printed  by  MARY  KATHARINE  GOD- 
DARD.  Every  demonstrator  of  anatomy  is  indebted  to 
Madame  DUCOTJDRAY  for  his  manikin.  Artificial  marble 
is  the  invention  of  Madame  DUTILLET.  In  1864  Mrs. 
VANDERNPLASSE  came  from  Flanders  to  England,  and 
began  the  use  and  manufacture  of  starch.  Behold  what 
an  industry  has  sprung  from  the  neat  straw  bonnet  of 
BETSEY  BAKER,  worn  less  than  a  hundred  years  ago ! 
Mrs.  WILSON  of  London  manages  the  principal  line  of 
omnibuses.  Mrs.  SARRICK  of  Drury  Lane  conducts  a 
theatre.  Mrs.  THRALE  carries  on  a  brewery.  The 
widow  of  Dr.  A.  D.  Bullock  continues  her  husband's 
practice  in  Wyoming,  R.I.  We  hear  of  another  whose 
bees  yielded  twenty  thousand  pounds  of  honey  in  a  year. 
In  Vassar  we  have  the  first  lady  professor  of  mathemat- 
ics in  any  American  college.  Two  at  Vermont  Univer- 
sity were  elected  to  membership  by  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
Society,  as  an  award  for  superior  scholarship.  For  the 
past  eight  years  or  more  there  lias  been  connected  with 
the  Rowland  School  for  Young  Women  an  organization 


628  WOMEN  OF  THE  CE2TTUBY. 

known  as  the  Rowland  Navy.  One  of  the  professors 
manages  the  crews :  otherwise  all  is  done  by  themselves. 
The  Countess  Lanner,  widow  of  Frederick  VII.  of 
Denmark,  has  left  her  property  of  four  millions  for  the 
maintenance  of  an  institution  for  orphan  and  deserted 
girls  of  Denmark.  Six  hundred  or  eight  hundred  will 
be  provided  for  at  the  castle  of  Jagerspris  in  North 
Zealand.  We  might  multiply  these  facts  to  weariness, 
but  their  significance  is  patent.  Good  beginnings  are 
final  certainties.  Benjamin  Franklin  has  the  credit  of 
introducing  broom-corn  into  the  United  States.  While 
examining  an  imported  corn-whisk  he  found  a  single 
seed,  which  he  planted  in  his  garden :  from  that  came 
its  propagation.  We  have  a  tattered  certificate  of 
membership  to  the  first  woman's  social  charitable 
society  in  Boston.  Could  its  possessor  have  even  ima- 
gined the  network  of  our  kindred  associations  ?  " 

Some  woman  with  sufficient  leisure  would  do  royal 
service  to  her  sex  and  the  cause  of  woman,  if  she 
would  prepare  a  volume  in  which,  with  all  detail, 
might  be  shown  the  help  of  woman  in  the  onward 
progress  of  society  in  regard  to  household  and  other 
conveniences.  It  would  be  then  perceived,  that,  if 
woman  had  not  done  as  much  as  her  brothers  in  the 
way  of  inventions,  it  was  not  because  the  inventive 
genius  did  not  belong  to  both  sexes,  but  because 
woman's  energies  and  genius  had  been  directed  in  other 
channels. 

It  may  also  be  affirmed  that  there  is  a  Providence  in 
regard  to  inventions,  and  that  they  were  not  granted 
to  the  family  of  man  till  the  right  time  had  fully  come. 
They  have  appeared  in  many  instances  to  be  the  result 
of  accident,  which  is  but  another  name  for  a  Providence 
unforeseen.  Even  then  woman  has  had  to  do  with 


WOMEN  INVENTORS.  629 

them  in  some  way,  as  the  following  from  "  Chambers* 
Journal  "  will  show  :  — 

"  One  of  the  pleasantest  anecdotes  relative  to  an 
invention  being  suggested  by  accident  bears  relation 
to  the  stocking-loom,  or  knitting-frame.  The  story 
has  been  told  in  two  or  three  different  forms ;  but  the 
most  popular  version  accords  with  a  picture  and  in- 
scription preserved  by  the  Frame-work  Knitters'  Com- 
pany. About  a  hundred  and  ninety  years  ago,  Mr. 
William  Lee,  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  was 
expelled  for  marrying  in  disregard  to  the  statutes  of 
his  college.  Having  no  fortune  on  either  side,  his 
young  wife  contributed  to  their  joint  support  by  knit- 
ting. The  husband,  watching  one  day  the  movements 
of  her  fingers,  suddenly  conceived  the  idea  of  imitating 
them  by  mechanical  means,  in  order  that  she  might  get 
through  her  work  in  a  manner  easier  to  herself,  and 
perchance  increase  her  emoluments.  The  ingenious 
stocking-frame  was  the  result  of  his  cogitations.  In 
hand-knitting,  polished  steel  needles  or  wires  are  used 
to  link  threads  together  into  a  series  of  loops  closely 
resembling  those  produced  in  tambouring.  In  frame- 
work-knitting, one  person  can  manage  a  large  number 
of  knitting-needles  at  once,  —  pieces  of  steel  midway 
in  shape  between  straight  wires  and  bent  hooks,  and 
aided  by  jacks,  or  vibrating  levers,  treadles,  rows  of 
bobbins,  and  other  clever  contrivances.  William  Lee's 
first  stocking-frame  was  in  all  probability  small  and 
very  rough ;  but  it  had  in  it  a  potentiality  (as  Dr.  John- 
son might  have  called  it)  of  developing  great  things, 
until  at  last  it  has  culminated  in  that  masterly  piece  of 
mechanism,  the  circular  rotary  hosiery  machine.  Lucky 
accident,  in  like  manner,  led,  about  the  year  1764,  to 


630  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

the  invention  of  tlie  spinning-jenny,  one  of  the  founda- 
tions of  the  amazing  prosperity  of  the  cotton-manufac- 
ture. But,  as  in  most  instances  of  the  kind,  the  soil 
was  prepared  in  some  degree  for  the  reception  of  the 
seed :  the  accident  would  probably  have  passed  unno- 
ticed if  there  had  not  been  a  mind  in  a  condition  to 
appreciate  it.  James  Hargreaves  of  Standhill,  near 
Blackburn,  was  a  humble  man  who  lived  by  hand- 
epinning  and  weaving ;  his  wife  and  children  aiding  in 
their  several  ways.  He  succeeded  in  expediting  his 
work  by  inventing  a  carding-machine  to  comb  out,  or 
straighten,  the  fibres  of  cotton,  as  a  substitute  for 
hand-cards  (wires  inserted  in  a  flat  piece  of  wood).  In 
spinning,  after  the  carding  and  other  preparatory  pro- 
cesses had  been  completed,  he  frequently  tried  to  spin 
with  two  or  three  spindles  at  once,  by  holding  two  or 
three  separate  threads  between  the  fingers  of  his  left 
hand,  and  thus  double  or  treble  the  amount  of  work 
effected  in  a  given  time.  The  horizontal  position  of 
the  spindles,  however,  baffled  him ;  his  fingers  and  the 
spindles  would  not  work  in  harmony.  One  day,  in 
1764,  a  little  toddling  member  of  his  family  upset  the 
spinning-wheel  while  it  was  being  worked.  Hargreaves 
noticed,  that,  while  he  retained  the  thread  in  his  hand, 
the  wheel  continued  to  revolve  for  a  time  horizontally, 
giving  a  vertical  rotation  to  the  spindle.  An  idea 
started  into  his  brain  at  once  ;  here  was  the  very  thing 
he  wanted.  He  saw  that  if  something  were  contrived 
to  hold  the  roving  (a  thickish  coil  of  cotton),  as  the 
finger  and  thumb  were  wont  to  do,  and  to  travel  back- 
ward and  forward  on  wheels,  several  spindles  might  be 
used  at  once.  He  set  to  work ;  .and  the  result  was  a 
frame,  or  machine,  which  he  called  the  spinning-jenny 
(very  likely  his  wife's  Christian  name  was  Jenny), 


WOMEN   INYEXTORS.  631 

having  eight  spindles.  The  family  at  once  largely 
increased  their  weekly  earnings.  How  it  happened 
that  through  workmen's  spite  and  manufacturers' 
greed,  or  whether  it  was,  as  has  been  said,  that  a 
better  idea  than  his  had  been  previously  started  and 
acted  upon  by  others,  Hargreaves  was  never  permitted 
to  secure  an  adequate  return  for  his  ingenuity,  we 
need  not  now  stop  to  relate  :  Lancashire  accumulated 
wealth  from  the  spinning-jenny  (amplified  by  degrees 
to  eighty  spindles),  but  regarded  little  the  brains  that 
had  enabled  them  to  do  so.  When  maidens  are  '  doing 
their  hair,'  —  an  important  element  of  daily  duty  in 
many  a  household,  —  they  may  perhaps  be  gratified  in 
learning  that  this  process  led  accidentally  to  a  very  use- 
ful invention.  Joshua  Heilman,  engaged  in  the  cotton- 
manufacture  at  Mulhouse  in  Alsace,  was  long  mejiitat- 
ing  on  the  possibility  of  inventing  a  combing-machine 
for  long-staple  cotton,  the  carding-mac%ine  until  then 
employed  being  better  suited  for  cotton  having  a  short 
staple.  He  tried  and  tried  again,  and  impoverished 
himself  by  preparing  machines  and  models  which  failed 
to  realize  the  intended  purpose.  Brooding  over  the 
matter  one  evening,  he  watched  his  daughters  combing 
their  hair,  and  noticed  (perhaps  for  the  first  time  really 
noticed)  how  they  drew  the  long  tresses  between  their 
fingers,  alternately  withdrawing  the  comb  through 
them.  The  thought  struck  him,  that  if  he  could  suc- 
cessfully imitate  by  a  machine  this  twofold  action,  so 
as  to  comb  out  the  long  fibres  of  cotton,  and  drive  back 
the  shorter  by  reversing  the  action  of  the  comb,  his 
long-sought  object  would  be  pretty  nearly  attained. 
Armed  with  this  new  idea,  he  set  to  work  with  renewed 
cheerfulness,  and  invented  a  beautiful  machine,  which 
enabled  him  to  comb  cheap  cotton  into  moderately  fine 


632  WOMEN   OP  THE  CENTUI.Y. 

yarn,  more  easily,  and  with  less  waste,  than  by  any 
process  until  then  known.  One  of  our  Royal  Acade- 
micians, about  a  dozen  years  ago,  brought  the  skill  of 
his  pencil  to  bear  upon  this  pleasant  subject  for  a  pic- 
ture, —  Heilman  watching  his  daughters  combing  out 
their  glossy  tresses." 

The  following  paragraphs  are  from  the  "  Woman's 
Journal,"  Dec.  14, 1872  :  — 

"  Miss  KATE  BABTON,  a  young  lady  of  Philadelphia 
who  has  a  penchant  for  practical  mechanics,  has  invented 
an  improvement  on  sewing-machines  which  will  adapt 
them  to  the  manufacture  of  sails  and  other  heavy 
goods,  something  heretofore  impossible. 

"  Mrs.  AUGUSTA  M.  RODGEKS  of  Brooklyn  has,  in 
less  than  four  years,  received  letters-patent  from  our 
Government  for  as  many  as  four  different  inventions, 
—  a  mosquito-canopy,  a  folding-chair,  a  plan  for  heating 
cars  without  fire,  and  an  improvement  in  spark-arresters, 
to  be  applied  to  locomotives.  The  first  two  are  also 
to-day  protected  by  the  great  seal  of  England."  Under 
date  of  Dec.  21,  1872,  the  same  journal  speaks  of  "  A 
Lady  in  a  Machine-Shop,"  thus :  "  Miss  KNIGHT  of 
Boston  has  invented  a  machine  for  making  paper  bags, 
and  is  having  a  number  of  them  manufactured  at 
Chicopee,  under  her  own  supervision.  The  workmen 
employed  were  at  first  sceptical  as  to  her  mechanical 
ability  ;  but  she  cured  them  of  this  by  going  daily,  and 
working  among  them,  —  detecting  mistakes,  and  im- 
proving plans,  with  a  keener  eye  than  any  man  in  the 
works.  Her  invention  is  said  to  be  an  invaluable  one  ; 
and  she  will  make  a  handsome  fortune  out  of  it.  When 
a  friend  ventured  to  wonder  a  little  at  her  present 
vocation,  and  couldn't  explain  how  a  woman  should 
ever  do  any  thing  in  machinery,  she  said,  — 


WOMEN  INVENTOBS.  633 

"  *  It  is  only  following  out  nature.  As  a  child,  I 
never  cared  for  things  that  girls  usually  do ;  dolls 
never  possessed  any  charms  for  me.  I  couldn't  see  the 
sense  of  coddling  bits  of  porcelain  with  senseless  faces  : 
the  only  things  I  wanted  were  a  jack-knife,  a  gimlet, 
and  pieces  of  wood.  My  friends  were  horrified.  I  was 
called  a  tomboy ;  but  that  made  very  little  impression 
on  me.  I  sighed  sometimes,  because  I  was  not  like 
other  girls ;  but  wisely  concluded  that  I  couldn't  help 
it,  and  sought  further  consolation  from  my  tools.  I 
was  always  making  things  for  my  brothers :  did  they 
want  any  thing  in  the  line  of  playthings,  they  always 
said,  "  Mattie  will  make  them  for  us."  I  was  famous 
for  my  kites  ;  and  my  sleds  were  the  envy  and  admira- 
tion of  all  the  boys  in  town.  I'm  not  surprised  at 
what  I've  done.  I'm  only  sorry  I  couldn't  have  had 
as  good  a  chance  as  a  boy,  and  have  been  put  to  my 
trade  regularly.'  " 

And  yet  she  knows  as  much  about  machinery  as 
though  she  had  made  it  a  study  all  her  life.  It  is  a 
genuine  gift ;  and  she  can  no  more  help  making  ma- 
chinery than  Anna  Dickinson  can  help  making  speeches. 

The  inventor  of  the  seamless  bags  was  Miss  LUCY 
JOHNSON,  who  died  near  Providence,  R.I.,  Aug.  22, 
1867,  aged  seventy-eight.  It  was  in  1824  that  "  she 
wove  seven  pairs  of  seamless  pillow-cases,  and  received 
a  premium  at  the  fair  held  at  Pawtucket  in  October  of 
that  year.  Those  pillow-cases,  still  in  a  good  state  of 
preservation,  are  supposed  to  have  been  the  first  seam- 
less bags  ever  made.  Ignorant  of  the  value  of  her 
invention,  Miss  Johnson  took  no  steps  to  secure  a 
patent.  Her  mode  of  weaving  has  since  been  ingrafted 
on  the  power-loom,  and  patented,  yielding  a  fortune 
to  the  patentees ;  while  Miss  Johnson  spent  the  closing 


634  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

years  of  her  life  dependent  upon  friends,  and  the  charity 
of  her  native  town."  Inventors  will  some  day  receive 
the  rewards  they  deserve,  — 

"  When  every  wrong  thing's  righted," 

and  the  Golden  Rule  prevails. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


WOMEN     LAWYERS. 

Phebe  W.  Couzins  —  Myra  Brad  well  —  Clara  H.  Nash  —  Charlotte  E. 
Kay  —  Helena  Barkalow,  and  others. 


"  Open  that  old  and  deathless  book,  whose  words  we  dare  not  spurn, 
And  read  her  well-deserved  renown  on  every  page  we  turn: 
Here  Deborah,  the  priestess  pure,  the  judge,  the  poet,  shines;  . 
And  Jephthah's  daughter  round  her  sire  her  snowy  arm  intwines." 

MARY  M.  CHASE. 


"  She  openeth  her  mouth  with  wisdom;  and  in  her  tongue  is  the  law  of  kind- 
ness." —  PHOV.  xxxi.  20. 


since  Deborah  judged  Israel,  there  have  been 
-1—J  women  capable  of  judging  and  legislating.  In 
our  land  there  are  many  who  are  as  capable  as  the  men 
who  vote,  to  legislate  for  the  best  good  of  the  com- 
munity; and  within  the  last  twenty-five  years  there 
have  been  great  changes  in  regard  to  the  legal  status  of 
women  in  many  of  our  States  ;  and  several  women  have 
been  admitted  to  the  bar  as  lawyers.  That  there  was 
need  of  this,  and  that  there  is  still  need  of  progress  in 
that  direction,  is  evident  to  all  who  correctly  apprehend 


636  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

the  legal  disabilities  of  women,  especially  of  those  who 
are  married.  These  differ  in  different  States;  but  as 
the  "  common  law,"  so  called,  prevails  in  most,  their 
disabilities  are  everywhere  greater  than  justice  approves, 
and  greater  than  political  equality  would  permit. 

"  At  common  law,"  says  Prof.  Parsons,  "  the  disa- 
bility of  a  married  woman  is  almost  entire.  Her  per- 
sonal existence  is  merged  for  most  purposes  in  that  of 
her  husband.  This  was  not  so  among  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  nor  with  the  earlier  Teutonic  races ;  and  must 
be  explained  as  one  of  the  effects  of  the  feudal  system." 

George  A.  Hiscox,  Esq.,  of  Litchfield,  Conn.,  quotes 
these  words  in  his  valuable  tract  on  the  "  Legal  Disa- 
bilities of  Married  Women  in  Connecticut,"  and  then 
goes  on  to  say,  — 

"  Under  that  system  dependence  was  the  universal 
rule.  It  was  then  believed  that  the  peace  and  well- 
being  of  the  community  could  only  be  secured  by  the 
dependence  of  the  mass  of  the  population  on  certain 
feudal  superiors,  and  by  the  further  dependence  of 
those  superiors  on  one  sovereign  will.  Just  as  it  is 
now  argued  that  equality  and  order  are  incompatible  in 
the  marriage  state,  it  was  then  supposed  that  equality 
and  order  were  incompatible  in  the  political  state. 
During  the  centuries  that  have  elapsed  since  our  mar- 
riage law  took  its  present  shape,  the  emancipation  and 
then  the  enfranchisement  of  one  class  after  another  has 
been  effected,  till  at  last,  in  this  country,  every  male 
citizen  has  his  freedom  and  his  vote.  The  last  step  in 
this  reform  has  been  attained  at  the  cost  of  a  great 
social  and  political  revolution,  overturning  the  govern- 
ment of  the  few  possessed  of  property  and  intelligence, 
and  establishing  the  government  of  the  many  possessed 
of  neither.  This  revolution  has  been  effected,  and  can 


WOMEN   LAWYERS.  637 

only  be  justified,  on  the  principle  that  no  class  or  race 
of  men,  however  superior  by  nature  and  education,  can 
be  trusted  with  the  political  and  social  control  of  any 
other  class,  however  degraded  by  ignorance  or  inferior 
by  nature.  The  theory  of  universal  suffrage  is  based 
on  the  great  lesson  of  all  political  experience,  that 
only  those  who  suffer  from  abuses  will  ever  thoroughly 
remedy  them.  Slavery  would  have  waited  long  for 
abolition  at  the  hands  of  slaveholders ;  and  who  will 
claim  that  Northern  philanthropy  was  pure  enough  to 
have  abolished  slavery,  or  to  have  established  negro 
suffrage,  had  there  been  no  manifest  military  or  politi- 
cal advantage  to  accrue  to  those  abolishing  the  one, 
or  establishing  the  other  ? 

"  The  history  of  the  legislation  of  the  last  quarter  of 
a  century  regarding  the  law  of  marriage  forms  no  excep- 
tion to  the  general  rule.  None  of  those  statute  allevia- 
tions of  the  harshness  of  the  common  law  have. reached 
the  root  of  the  evil,  the  absolute  personal  dependence 
of  the  wife  on  the  husband.  The  tenderness  with 
which  legislatures  treat  this  sole  remaining  relic  of 
a  scheme  of  dependence,  once  general,  is  truly  won- 
derful, especially  as  contrasted  with  the  root-and- 
branch  work  that  has  been  made  with  every  system  of 
male  tutelage.  In~the  fundamental  rule  of  the  wife's 
personal  subjection, — the  most  important  branch  of 
this  subject,  and  the  only  one  yet  considered,  —  no 
reform  has  even  been  attempted.  In  many  States  the 
property  rights  of  married  women  have  been  placed 
on  a  footing  approximating  to  equality.  In  none  has 
her  personal  liberty  been  secured,  or  her  legal  servitude 
alleviated,  except  in  the  most  superficial,  we  might 
justly  say  unintentional  manner.  Yet  it  must  be  per- 
fectly obvious  that  personal  rights  must  precede  prop- 


638  WOMEN  OP  THE  CENTURY. 

erty  rights  to  render  the  latter  of  any  real  avail ;  the 
securing  of  '  separate  '  property  to  one  under  strict 
tutelage  to  a  legal  master,  is  not  the  thorough  work 
legislators  make  when  they  remedy  abuses  under  the 
sharp  eye  of  the  suffering  voter.  Society  educates 
women  with  a  view  to  marriage,  and  to  marriage  only ; 
yet  she  cannot  marry  without  renouncing  that  liberty 
of  person,  and  that  equality  of  right,  which  are  the 
boasted  inheritance  of  every  American  citizen.  With 
the  single  exception  of  corporeal  chastisement,  the 
same  modes  of  enforcing  obedience  are  open  to  the 
husband  that  are  given  to  the  father.  Any  system  that 
should  place  a  man,  arrived  at  the  maturity  of  his 
bodily  and  mental  powers,  in  such  a  state  of  subjection, 
and  should  bind  him,  moreover,  to  hard  labor  for  a 
mere  maintenance,  would  be  reckoned  a  monstrous 
tyranny.  Regulations  made  shortly  after  the  war, 
which  proposed  a  far  less  stringent  obedience  on  the 
part  of  the  Southern  freedman  towards  the  Southern 
planter,  were  indignantly  rejected  by  the  dominant 
North.  The  introduction  of  coolie  laborers,  bound  to 
service  for  a  term  of  years,  has  been  made  a  penal 
offence.  Yet  a  system  of  dependence  which  condemns 
to  complete,  if  not  to  harsh  servitude  a  large,  indus- 
trious, and  intelligent  portion  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race 
continues  to  be  the  law  of  the  land." 

In  saying  these  things  Mr.  Hiscox  (who  is  the 
excellent  husband  of  a  superior  woman,  both  respect- 
ing the  marriage  relation  as  it  should  be  respected  by 
Christians)  only  shows  how  important  it  is  that  woman 
should  have  both  legislators  and  lawyers  of  her  own 
gex. 

One  such  lawyer  is  PHEBE  W.  COUZINS,  Esq. 
•'  Miss  Couzins  was  admitted  to  the  Law  School  of  the 


WOMEN  LAWYERS.  639 

Washington  University  of  St.  Louis  in  1869.  Her 
application  was  received  without  a  dissenting  voice  from 
either  the  Law  Faculty,  or  Board  of  Directors;  they 
taking  the  noble  stand  that  the  university  was  open  to 
both  sexes  alike,  and  if  a  woman  desired  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  laws  which  govern  her,  or  to  enter 
the  profession  of  the  law,  the  university  extended  the 
same  helping  hand  to  her  as  to  a  man.  St.  Louis  has 
the  honor,  not  only  of  being  the  first  to  open  the  law- 
schools  of  the  United  States  to  woman,  but  also  of 
preparing  the  first  woman  sculptor,  Harriet  Hosmer,  for 
her  profession  by  a  thorough  course  of  anatomy.  East- 
ern colleges  having  refused  her  admission,  she  obtained 
the  desired  instruction  in  the  St.  Louis  Medical  College, 
through  the  generous  patronage  of  Wayman  Crow,  Esq. 
This  gentleman  was  also  a  member  of  the  board  which 
received  Miss  Couzins.  Miss  Couzins  graduated  in 
1871  from  the  university.  A  dinner  was  given  to  the 
Board  and  Faculty,  in  honor  of  the  event,  by  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  G.  S.  Walker,  at  which  speeches  were  made  by 
the  Board  and  Faculty,  sentiments  responded  to  by 
Rev.  Dr.  Eliot,  Jas.  E.  Yeatman,  and  Wayman  Crow 
of  the  Board,  which  indicated  the  interest  felt  in  the 
step  taken. 

"  Miss  Couzins  coming  from  the  conservative  element 
of  a  pro-slavery  State,  much  interest  has  been  mani- 
fested as  to  the  influences  which  caused  her  to  take  so 
radical  a  step. 

"She  considers  the  war,  and  its  attendant  circum- 
stances, as  the  one  great  motor  which  awakened  her 
thought  and  aroused  her  interest  in  behalf  of  humanity. 
Her  mother,  Mrs.  ADALINE  COUZINS,  was  among  the 
first  to  offer  her  services  as  volunteer  aid  to  the  Sani- 
tary Commission,  established  at  St.  Louis,  of  which  Jas. 


640          .  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

E.  Yeatman  was  President.  Yet,  long  before  its  estab- 
lishment, Miss  Couzins  was  laboring  for  the  ameliora- 
tion of  the  suffering  soldiers,  who  were  rapidly  filling 
the  city  from  the  battle-fields  of  the  south-west.  After 
the  battle  of  Wilson's  Creek,  where  Gen.  Lyon  fell, 
when  the  first  car-load  of  wounded  soldiers  were 
brought  to  the  city,  Mrs.  Couzins  and  her  husband, 
then  chief  of  police,  and  acting  provost  marshal, 
drove  out  to  meet  the  train  with  a  carriage-load  of  ban- 
dages, lint,  and  under-clothing.  They  helped  carry  the 
wounded  into  the  unfinished  House  of  Refuge,  and 
Mrs.  Couzins  with  her  own  hands  bathed  and  dressed 
the  wounds  of  the  sufferers ;  and  from  that  first  act  of 
woman's  devotion,  sprang  the  efficient  Ladies'  Union 
Aid,  one  of  the  finest  organizations  in  the  country, 
composed  of  hundreds  of  devoted  women. 

"  During  the  entire  war  her  mother's  labors  were  of 
the  most  trying,  self-sacrificing  character.  The  presi- 
dent of  the  Sanitary  Commission  was  wont  to  call  her 
his  right-hand  man,  worth  ten  ordinary  persons." 
When  Fremont's  army  made  its  disastrous  march  to  the 
south-west,  and  hundreds  of  soldiers  were  left  sick  and 
dying  by  the  wayside,  it  was  Mrs.  Couzins  and  Miss 
ARETHTJSA  L.  FORBES  who  braved  the  winter's  storm 
with  the  thermometer  at  twenty  degrees  below  zero, 
ascertained  their  exact  condition,  and  procured  their 
transportation  into  the  comfortable  post  hospitals  of 
the  city.  When  the  battles  of  Shiloh,  Donaldson,  Cor- 
inth, Pillow,  Vicksburg,  Red,  White,  Arkansas,  Yazoo 
Rivers,  and  others,  occurred,  Mrs.  Couzins,  with  the  now 
sainted  Margaret  Breckenridge,  would  proceed  to  the 
battle-fields,  on  the  hospital  steamers,  and  carefully 
bring  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  to  St.  Louis,  per- 
forming not  only  the  multifold  duties  of  nurse,  sur- 


WOMEN  LAWYEKS.  641 

geon,  and  physician,  but  smoothing  the  dying  pillow 
with  a  mother's  prayers,  or  tenderly  closing  the  eyes  of 
the  soldier-boy  with  a  mother's  tears. 

"  The  work  of  her  mother  on  the  steamers  and  in  the 
hospitals ;  the  many  harrowing,  sad  histories  which 
came  to  her  through  that  source,  —  first  awakened  her 
mind  to  the  cause  which  lay  back  of  all  these  results, 
and  aroused  the  thought,  whether  or  no  woman's  en- 
lightened thought  and  action  might  not  prevent  in  the 
same  ratio  as  she  ameliorated  the  horrors  of  war  and 
its  attendant  evils.  These  ideas  were  slowly  taking 
root ;  and  in  1869  they  received  a  new  impulse  from 
the  woman's  franchise  organization,  composed  of  some 
of  the  best  and  most  intelligent  women  of  St.  Louis. 
She  then  began  to  think  of  a  profession;  and  at  the 
earnest  solicitation  of  Judge  John  M.  Krum,  a  warm ' 
personal  friend,  and  member  of  the  law  faculty,  she 
determined  on  a  legal  profession,  and  applied  for 
admission  to  the  Law  School.  Since  her  graduation 
she  has  been  admitted  to  all  the  courts  of  the  State 
of  Missouri,  the  United  District  Court,  the  courts  of 
Arkansas  and  of  the  Territory  of  Utah." 

Miss  Couzins  is  a  lecturer  of  marked  ability,  at  once 
dignified'  and  humorous,  and  always  holds  her  audience, 
elicits  applause,  and  convinces  her  hearers  by  her  unan- 
swerable logic. 

Other  women  lawyers  there  are  in  several  of  the 
States. 

"  The  Des  Moines  Register "  speaks  as  follows  of 
Mrs.  EMMA  HADDOCK  of  Iowa  City,  who  on  Friday 
last  was  admitted  to  practise  in  the  United  States  Cir- 
cuit and  District  Courts  in  Iowa :  "  Mrs.  Haddock  is 
the  wife  of  Judge  Haddock  of  Iowa  City.  She  gradu- 
ated in  the  law  department  of  the  State  University  this 


642  -WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

year  with  high  honor.  While  in  this  department  she 
gained  many  friends  by  her  modest  demeanor,  and  the 
students  had  only  words  of  praise  for  her.  She  was  a 
hard  and  successful  student,  and  a  lady  of  culture  in 
other  branches  than  the  law.  She  is  highly  esteemed 
in  the  community  in  which  she  lives,  and  all  admire 
her  for  her  talents  and  sterling  good  sense.  This  is  a 
worthy  honor  worthily  bestowed ;  and  the  honor  of 
being  the  first  female  in  the  United  States  admitted  to 
practise  in  these  courts  could  fall  on  no  more  worthy 
one  of  her  sex." 

The  following  newspaper  clipping  is  believed  to  be 
as  correct  as  it  is  cheering  :  — 

WOMEN  LAWYERS. 

"In  1869  Mrs.  B.  A.  MANSFIELD  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  of  Iowa  under  a  statute  providing  that  '  any 
white  male  person'  with  the  requisite  qualifications 
should  be  licensed  to  practise  by  virtue  of  a  statute 
providing  that  *  words  importing  the  masculine  gender 
only,  may  be  extended  to  females,'  and  the  Court  held 
that  '  the  affirmative  declaration  that  male  persons  may 
be  admitted  is  not  an  implied  denial  to  the  right  of 
females.'  (See  « Legal  News,'  Feb.  9,  1870.) 

"  Missouri,  under  a  statute  providing  that  *  any  per- 
son* possessing  certain  qualifications  may  be  licensed 
and  admitted  to  the  courts,  including  the  Supreme 
Court  of  that  State,  in  April,  1870,  admitted  Miss 
Barkalow  and  Miss  Phebe  Couzins.  (See  '  Legal 
News,'  April  9, 18fO.) 

"  Michigan,  under  a  statute  using  the  word  «  citizen,' 
admits  women  to  practise. 

"  Maine,  under  a  similar  statute,  admitted,  in  1872, 
Mrs.  C.  H.  Nash  to  the  Supreme  Court.  (See  '  Legal 
News,'  Oct.  26,  1872.) 


WOMEN  LAWYERS.  643 

"  In  the  District  of  Columbia  Mrs.  B.  A.  LOCKWOOD 
was  admitted  in  1870,  and  CHARLOTTE  E.  RAY  in  1872, 
on  graduating  from  Howard  University. 

"  Illinois  has  recently  made  legislative  proviso  for  the 
admission  of  women;  and  Mrs.  Myra  Brad  well,  editor 
of  the  '  Legal  News,'  has  a  large  practice  in  that  State. 
The  last  addition  is  Miss  MARY  F.  PERRY,  admitted 
lately  to  the  practice  of  law  in  Chicago,  111. 

"  Miss  LAVTNA  GOODELL,  who  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  at  Janesville,  Wis.,  about  a  year  ago,  has  appeared 
before  the  Supreme  Court  at  Madison  with  an  applica- 
tion for  admission  to  its  bar,  with  a  written  argument 
to  enforce  the  same.'  " 

"  Miss  ALTA  Q.  HULETT  was  born  on  a  farm  near 
Rockford,  111.,  June  4, 1854.  Her  father,  G.  J.  Hulett, 
was  a  physician,  a  native  of  New  York.  Her  mother 
was  born  in  Tennessee,  but  removed  to  Illinois  while 
young.  Dr.  Hulett  died  in  1860,  leaving  a  wife  and 
two  daughters ;  Alta,  the  eldest,  being  six  years  of  age. 
The  only  property  left  for  the  support  of  this  widow 
and  her  two  little  girls  was  a  home  worth  a  thousand 
dollars  in  Rockten,  a  small  village  near  Rockford. 
Here  the  family  lived ;  and  Alta  was  placed  in  the 
public  schools,  where  she  remained  until  her  tenth 
year,  when,  so  slender  was  the  family  purse,  she,  too, 
was  obliged  to  become  a  'bread-winner.'  To  this 
end  she  entered  a  telegraph-office,  and  acquired  suffi- 
cient knowledge  of  the  business  to  be  appointed  '  oper- 
tor '  at  Rockteii.  She  at  length  gave  up  this  position 
in  order  to  return  to  her  books,  her  mother  meanwhile 
managing  to  support  the  family  by  keeping  boarders. 
Having  made  a  fortunate  venture  in  real  estate,  they 
sold  their  home,  and  removed  to  Rockford,  in  order  to 


644  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

enjoy  the  greater  educational  facilities  of  that  town. 
Alta  entered  the  Rockford  high  school,  and  graduated 
on  her  sixteenth  birthday,  when  she  at  once  began  the 
study  of  law,  although  at  this  time  the  door  to  the  pro- 
fession seemed  hopelessly  closed  against  woman;  but 
the  desire  to  become  a  lawyer  had  been  an  inspiration 
from  earliest  childhood ;  and  being  possessed  of  an 
indomitable  will,  which  is  a  kind  of  genius,  our  heroine 
saw  no  alternative  but  to  fulfil  her  destiny,  which  the 
ripening  years  seemed  also  to  favor.  She  entered,  as  a 
student,  the  law-office  of  Mr.  Lathrop  of  Rockford,  at 
that  time  and  still  one  of  the  most  eminent  practitioners 
at  the  bar  of  the  State.  Here  Miss  Hulett  made  good 
use  of  her  opportunities :  after  a  few  months'  study  she 
passed  the  required  examination,  and  sent  her  creden- 
tials to  the  Supreme  Court,  which,  instead  of  granting 
or  refusing  her  plea  for  admission,  ignored  it  altogether. 
It  may  be  proper  to  state  here,  that  MYRA  BRAD- 
WELL,  the  successful  editor  of  the  '  Legal  News,'  pub- 
lished at  Chicago,  had  just  been  denied  admission.  Her 
case  stated  in  brief  is  this :  Mrs.  Bradwell  made  appli- 
cation for  a  license  to  practise  law.  The  Court  refused 
her  application  on  the  ground  of  her  being  a  married 
woman:  she  immediately  brought  a  suit  to  test  the 
legality  of  this  decision.  This  interesting  case  was 
carried  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
which  sustained  the  decisions  of  the  lower  courts. 
Miss  Hulett  had  reason  to  expect,  that,  since  she  was 
unmarried,  this  decision  would  not  prejudice  the 
decision  in  her  own  case.  Just  on  the  threshold  of  her 
chosen  profession,  the  rewards  of  youthful  aspirations 
and  earnest  study  apparently  just  within  her  grasp, 
her  dismay  can  be  imagined  when  no  response  what- 
ever was  vouchsafed  her  petition.  A  fainter  heart 


WOMEN   LAWYERS.  645 

would  have  accepted  the  situation.  To  battle  success- 
fully with  old  prejudices,  intrenched  in  the  strong- 
holds of  the  law,  required  not  only  marked  ability, 
but  also  a  courage  which  could  not  surrender.  Such 
was  the  situation  in  the  fall  of  Miss  Hulett's  seven- 
teenth year.  Grievously  disappointed,  but  not  dis- 
heartened, the  pressing  necessities  of  the  family 
claimed  her  immediate  attention :  something  must  be 
done  at  once.  She  took  a  country  school  for  four 
months,  and  bravely  went  to  work  again.  While 
teaching,  and  '  boarding  round,'  she  prepared  a  lec- 
ture, 4  Justice  vs.  the  Supreme  Court,'  in  which  she 
vigorously  and  eloquently  stated  her  case.  This  lec- 
ture was  delivered  in  Rockford,  Freeport,  and  many 
other  of  the  larger  towns  in  Northern  Illinois,  enlisting 
everywhere  sympathy  and  admiration  in  her  behalf; 
and  what  was  besides,  at  this  juncture,  a  matter  of 
serious  importance,  the  family  purse  was  replenished 
thereby.  After  taking  counsel  with  Lieut-Gov.  Early, 
a  friend  of  the  family,  and  other  prominent  members 
of  the  Legislature,  she  drew  up  a  bill,  the  provisions 
of  which,  as  passed,  are,  — 

"  '  Be  it  enacted  by  the  people  of  the  State  of  Illinois 
represented  in  the  General  Assembly,  that  no  person 
shall  be  precluded  or  debarred  from  any  occupation, 
profession,  or  employment  (except  military),  on  account 
of  sex.  Provided  that  this  act  shall  not  be  construed 
to  affect  the  eligibility  of  any  person  to  an  elective 
office. 

" '  Nothing  in  this  act  shall  be  construed  as  requiring 
any  female  to  work  on  streets  or  roads,  or  serve  on 
juries. 

"*A11  laws  inconsistent  with  this  act  are  hereby 
repealed." 


646  WOMEN  OP  THE   CENTTJBY. 

"  Friends  obtained  for  this  bill  a  favorable  introduc- 
tion into  the  Legislature,  which  passed  it,  and  the  gov- 
ernor gave  to  it  his  signature.  Miss  Hulett  was  passing 
up  the  steps  to  her  home  one  rainy  day,  when  the  tele- 
gram announcing  that  her  bill  had  become  a  law  was 
placed  in  her  hands.  Trembling  in  every  limb,  she 
read  the  despatch  ;  when  her  woman's  nature  asserted 
itself,  and  she  sank  upon  the  steps,  regardless  of  the 
fast  falling  rain,  and  wept  tears  of  joy.  To  use  her 
own  words  in  relating  this  incident,  she  said,  '  I  shall 
never  again  know  a  moment  of  such  supreme  happi- 
ness.' Immediately,  upon  the  advice  of  trusted  friends, 
she  removed  to  Chicago,  a  city  the  peer  of  Boston  in 
its  supreme  scorn  for  old-time  prejudices.  Here  she 
passed  another  year  in  severe  study,  when  she  again 
presented  herself  for  admission.  After  a  most  vigorous 
examination,  she  stood  at  the  head  of  a  class  of  twenty- 
eight  ;  all  of  the  others  being  gentlemen,  and  her 
seniors.  This  tune  the  Supreme  Court  made  the 
amende  honorable,  and  courteously  and  cordially  wel- 
comed her  into  the  ranks  of  the  profession.  At  the 
age  of  nineteen  Miss  Hulett  began  the  practice  of  law 
on  an  equal  footing  with  her  brother  lawyers  ;  having 
been  admitted  not  only  into  all  of  the  State  courts, 
but  also  into  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States. 
To  say  tha{;  Chicago  is  proud  of  its  first  lady  lawyer  is 
only  a  mild  form  of  stating  the  case.  Like  its  famous 
water-crib,  grain  elevators,  &c.,  she  is  regarded  as  one 
of  its  distinctive  institutions. 

"  Miss  Hulett  is  worthy  of  her  position,  and  has 
earned  all  her  honors.  That  she  has  ability,  persever- 
ance, and  courage,  the  lesson  of  her  life  thus  far  has 
fully  demonstrated ;  but,  much  as  she  has  accomplished, 
she  impresses  one  as  possessed  of  an  immense  amount 


WOMEN  LAWYERS.  647 

of  reserved  power,  and  it  is  felt  that  the  future  has 
almost  unlimited  possibilities  in  store  for  her.  Miss 
Hulett  has,  in  addition  to  her  mental  endowments,  a 
fine  physique ;  her  sympathies  are  broad,  and  her  dispo- 
tion  genial.  She  is  one  of  those  individuals  who  love 
to  live:' 

HELENA  BAEKALOW  died  in  1870,  about  a  year  after 
her  admission  to  the  bar.  She  was  from  Brooklyn, 
N.Y.,  and  died  in  St.  Louis  of  typhoid  fever.  The 
members  of  the  bar  met  in  that  city,  and  passed  a  series 
of  resolutions  expressive  of  respect  and  regret.  Major 
Lucien  Eaton,  in  whose  law-office  Miss  Barkalow  was 
established  for  further  professional  study,  testified  in 
glowing  terms  to  her  excellence  as  a  woman  and  a 
lawyer. 

At  the  time  Miss  Couzins  was  admitted  to  the  Utah 
bar,  as  a  lawyer  of  St.  Louis,  Miss  C.  GEORGIE  SNOW 
of  Deseret  was  also  admitted.  She  is  the  daughter  of 
the  attorney-general  of  that  Territory,  and  had  been 
studying  in  her  father's  office.  The  welcome  to  the 
bar  was  general  and  cordial.  A  New  York  paper 
states :  "  In  executive  session  to-day  the  Senate  con- 
firmed the  first  woman  that  has  ever  been  appointed  to 
a  State  office.  The  lady's  name  is  JOSEPHINE  SHAW 
LOWELL.  She  was  nominated  by  the  governor  for  the 
office  of  State  commisssioner  of  charities  in  the  place 
of  Commissioner  Marshall,  and  was  confirmed  on  mo- 
tion of  Senator  Robertson.  Mrs.  Lowell  belongs  to  a 
distinguished  New  England  family.  Her  husband  —  a 
nephew  of  the  poet  Lowell  —  and  her  only  brother 
were  killed  in  the  late  war.  One  of  her  sisters  is  mar- 
ried to  George  William  Curtis,  and  another  is  the  wife 
of  Gen.  Barlow.  Mrs.  Lowell  resides  in  New  York, 
and  is  a  member  of  the  Ladies'  Local  Board  of  Chari- 
ties in  that  city." 


648  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUEY. 

Miss  MABY  E.  STEVENS  (a  granddaughter  of  Rev. 
Thomas  C.  Thatcher,  and  great-granddaughter  of  Rev. 
Peter  Thatcher,  who  was  pastor  of  the  Brattle-square 
church  in  Boston  at  his  death)  was  appointed  by  Gov. 
Claflin  of  Massachusetts  a  justice  of  peace,  and  is  one 
of  the  firm  of  conveyancers  and  copyists  in  Boston, 
Mass.,  known  as  E.  G.  Stevens  and  daughter ;  her  law- 
yer father  being  the  other  member  of  the  firm.  She 
had  been  previously  very  efficient  in  the  office  of  the 
register  of  deeds. 

"The  Woman's  Journal"  of  June  17,  1871,  says, 
"  Miss  MABY  WATTLE  and  Mrs.  HELEN  COMB  have 
entered  into  copartnership  for  the  practice  of  law  in 
Leavenworth.  This  is  the  first  female  attempt  at  law 
in  Kansas." 

The  same  paper  on  July  29, 1871,  says,  "  Miss  LYDIA 
S.  HALL,  a  clerk  in  the  Treasury  Department  at  Wash- 
ington, is  studjdng  law,  and  intends  to  practise  at  the 
bar  in  Washington  two  years  from  now.  Youth  will 
not  be  urged  against  her  admission,  for  she  will  then  be 
seventy-four  years  old." 

The  same  Journal  of  Aug.  9,  1873,  says,  "  Miss 
EMMA  HUBBABD,  daughter  of  Supt.  Hubbard,  who 
recently  graduated  from  the  law  department  of  the 
University  of  Michigan,  has  been  elected  assistant 
teacher  of  the  Fitchburg  High  School." 

Rev.  FANNY  W.  ROBEBTS,  before  her  ordination  at 
Kittery,  Me.,  was  appointed  a  justice  of  the  peace  by 
the  governor  and  council,  and  was  the  first  woman 
who  had  authority  to  solemnize  marriages  in  the  State. 
She  afterward  officiated  at  the  marriage  of  her  own  son, 
being  thus  the  first  woman  to  officiate  at  the  marriage 
of  a  child. 

ELLA  CHAPIN  was  appointed  register  of  deeds   in 


WOMEN  LAWYERS.  649 

Gratiot  Co.,  Mich.,  and  FRANCES  CHARLES  in  Oxford 
Co.,  Maine. 

"The  Woman's  Journal"  of  May  25,  1872,  says, 
"  Miss  ANNETTE  CONISE  of  Tiffin,  a  graduate  of  the 
classical  course  in  Heidelberg  College,  and  who  studied 
law  one  year,  has  made  application  to  the  governor  of 
Ohio  for  a  commission  as  notary  public.  Her  applica- 
tion was  referred  to  the  attorney-general,  who  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  under  the  constitution  and 
laws  of  the  State  such  commission  could  not  be  issued 
to  a  female." 

Also,  "  In  the  city  of  Washington,  where  a  few  years 
ago  colored  women  were  bought  and  sold  under  sanc- 
tion of  law,  a  woman  of  African  descent  has  been  ad- 
mitted to  practise  at  the  bar  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
District  of  Columbia.  Miss  CHARLOTTE  E.  RAY,  who 
has  the  honor  of  being  the  first  lady  lawyer  in  Wash- 
ington, is  a  graduate  of  the  Law  College  of  Howard 
University,  and  is  said  to  be  a  dusky  mulatto,  possesses 
quite  an  intelligent  countenance."  She  doubtless  has 
also  a  fine  mind,  and  deserves  success. 

"The  Woman's  Journal"  of  Oct.  22,  1870,  says, 
"  Miss  FRANCES  A.  RUTHERFORD,  M.D.,  has  filed  her 
acceptance  of  the  office  of  City  Physician  in  Grand 
Rapids,  Mich.,  and  taken  the  obligation  administered 
by  a  female  notary  public,  Miss  JULIA  MOFFINBURY, 
and  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  her  duties.  Grand 
Rapids  is  a  city  of  -sixteen  thousand  inhabitants." 

Also,  under  date  of  Feb.  19,  1870,  "  In  Illinois,  Mrs. 
AMELIA  HOBBS  has  been  elected  a  justice  of  the  peace 
for  Jersey  Landing  Township,  by  a  majority  of  twenty- 
six  votes.  This  is  the  first  woman  elected  to  office  in 
Illinois."  Miss  LIZZIE  BURT  was  appointed  register 
of  deeds  in  Kansas. 


650  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUKY. 

Mrs.  MYBA  BRADWELL  of  Chicago  is  the  able  editor 
of  "  The  Legal  News,"  and  when  burned  out  in  the 
great  fire  was  not  discouraged,  but  issued  it  every 
week,  though  at  first  of  abridged  dimensions.  She  is 
the  wife  of  a  judge,  and  found  her  marriage  vow,  what 
it  ought  not  to  have  been,  a  hindrance  to  her  being 
admitted  to  the  bar,  though  amply  qualified. 

A  daughter  of  Judge  and  Mrs.  Bradwell  has  recently 
been  admitted  to  the  bar. 

BELVA  A.  LOCKWOOD,  neS  Bennett,  was  born  at 
Royalton,  N.Y.,  Oct.  24,  1830.  She  was  a  fine  student, 
and  early  became  a  teacher.  At  eighteen  she  married 
Mr.  U.  H.  McNall,  a  young  farmer.  He  died,  leaving 
her  with  one  daughter  at  the  age  of  twenty-two.  She 
began  to  teach  again,  and  finally  entered  Genesee  Wes- 
leyan  College. 

"  She  applied  herself  with  so  much  assiduity,  that  at 
the  end  of  the  first  year  she  had  exceeded  her  own 
expectations,  and  found  her  name  entered  on  the  list 
of  juniors.  At  the  close  of  the  following  term  she  was 
again  promoted  to  the  senior  class,  from  which  she 
graduated  with  honor,  June  27,  1857.  Four  days 
before  her  graduation,  she  was  elected  almost  unani- 
mously, over  fifteen  competitors,  preceptress  of  the 
Lockport  Union  School,  the  central  high  school  of  the 
city ;  and  this  without  her  solicitation.  It  was  a  com- 
pliment paid  her  by  friends  who  had  known  the  strug- 
gle of  her  youth,  and  her  determined  effort  to  rise  above 
her  position. 

"  She  accepted  this  situation  reluctantly,  at  the  ear- 
nest request  of  Pres.  Cummings,  who  represented  it  to 
her  as  a  duty.  She  had  previously  determined  to 
make  the  West  her  field  of  labor,  whither  her  parents 
had  removed,  taking  with  them  her  little  daughter, 


WOMEN  LAWYERS.  651 

whom  she  had  not  seen  for  two  years.  To  stop  short 
of  this  cost  a  severe  struggle  between  maternal  love 
and  duty.  At  the  close  of  the  summer  term,  however, 
she  was  permitted  to  visit  her  family,  and  to  clasp  her 
child,  now  seven  years  of  age,  to  her  bosom.  She 
remained  in  this  school  for  four  years,  preparing  in  the 
meantime  her  daughter  for  the  junior  department,  and 
taking  her  sister  through  the  entire  seminary  course. 

"  At  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  in  1861,  many  of 
the  older  young  men  of  the  school  volunteered  hi  the 
service.  A  mass  meeting  of  the  women  of  the  city  was 
called,  which  was  very  largely  attended,  and  a  society 
of  all  the  churches  formed,  of  which  Mrs.  B.  A.  McNall 
was  made  president.  Accustomed  to  organize  and 
arrange  into  classes  hundreds  of  young  women,  she  was 
not  long  in  arranging  into  committees  this  mase  of 
earnest,  generous  womanhood ;  and  next  day  Ringue- 
berg  Hall  was  like  one  vast  beehive  in  cutting,  basting, 
and  stitching  all  the  belongings  and  accoutrements  of 
the  soldier.  It  was  not  long  before  that  gallant  regi- 
ment, the  Twenty-eighth  New  York,  were  clothed,  fed, 
and  sheltered  by  the  women  of  Lockport.  Many  of 
them  sleep  in  honored  soldiers'  graves ;  some  still  live 
with  honorable  scars  and  a  proud  record. 

"  Mrs.  McNall  continued  president  of  this  Associa- 
tion until  she  left  the  city  in  September,  having 
resigned  her  too  arduous  duties  to  accept  the  position 
of  preceptress  in  the  Gainesville  Female  Seminary,  in 
Wyoming  County,  N.Y.  The  school  building  was  soon 
afterward  burned,  and  she  remained  in  this  quiet  little 
puritanic  town  but  one  year  ;  but  during  her  stay  con- 
ducted two  large  Bible-classes,  one  of  adults  in  the 
church  and  one  of  young  women  in  the  school,  and 
conducted  a  weekly  prayer-meeting,  besides  her  Toutine 


652  WOMEN  OP  THE  CENTURY. 

of  school  duties.  The  monotony  of  her  life  here  was 
varied  by  long  walks  in  the  woods  with  the  girls  of  the 
school,  in  search  of  new  specimens  of  plants  ;  and  among 
her  writings  at  this  time  we  find  'Reminiscences  of 
Silver  Lake,'  '  The  Falls  at  Portage,'  and  '  Chestnutting 
on  the  Banks  of  the  Genesee.'  She  afterward  opened 
a  school  in  Hornellsville,  N.Y.,  assisted  by  other  teach- 
ers ;  but  finding  the  society  uncongenial,  and  the  school, 
though  large,  paying  but  poorly,  she,  at  the  earnest 
solicitation  of  friends,  was  persuaded  to  remove  to 
Owego,  N.Y.  She  here  purchased  of  Judge  Parker  the 
Pumpelley  estate,  situated  on  the  banks  of  the  Susque- 
hanna,  where  that  beautiful  river  makes  one  of  its  most 
graceful  curves,  and  opened  a  seminary  for  young 
ladies.  Here,  absorbed  in  educational  and  religious 
pursuits,  she  remained  until  after  the  assassination  of 
Pres.  Lincoln.  She  was  elected  lady  superintendent 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  sabbath  school,  and 
was  sent  as  a  delegate  to  the  State  sabbath  school  asso- 
ciation, which  met  in  Syracuse  in  1865. 

"  Constantly  impressed  with  the  idea  that  it  was  her 
duty  to  teach,  because -she  had  qualified  herself  for  that 
profession,  she  opened  a  school  for  young  ladies  in 
Union  League  Hall,  Oct.  8,  1864,  and  with  the  assist- 
ance of  her  daughter  and  a  competent  music  teacher, 
conducted  a  very  flourishing  school  until  her  marriage 
with  Dr.  E.  Lockwood  in  March,  1868.  Previous  to 
this  she  had  conceived  the  idea  of  visiting  Europe  ;  and 
without  counting  the  cost  of  stemming  public  opinion 
and  the  conventionalities  of  society,  applied  to  the 
Department  of  State  to  be  sent  as  consul  to  Ghent,  that 
office  being  then  vacant.  She  carefully  prepared  her- 
self for  the  examination,  being  familiar  with  the  lan- 
guages, especially  the  French  ;  re-read  international 


WOMEN  LAWYERS.  653 

law  and  the  Constitution,  and  gave  special  attention  to 
the  Consular  Manual.  But  it  is  not  always  brains  or 
culture  that  fill  offices,  but  the  more  special  qualifica- 
tion of  sex.  Disappointed  in  her  application,  she  turned 
her  attention  to  the  acquisition  of  the  Spanish  language. 
The  year  following  her  marriage,  nearly  twenty  years 
from  the  birth  of  her  first  child,  a  daughter,  Jessie,  was 
born  to  her.  This  child  was  a  wellspring  of  delight,  — 
a  living  sunbeam  in  the  house  to  both  her  and  her  hus- 
band. But  alas  for  human  hopes  !  she  died  at  the  age 
of  eighteen  months,  after  having  endeared  herself  to  all 
who  knew  her. 

"After  this  severe  blow,  —  finding  consolation  only 
in  severe  mental  exertion,  —  she  resolved  to  pursue  the 
study  of  law,  and  regularly  applied  for  admission  to 
Columbia  College,  hardly  dreaming  that  so  reasonable 
an  application  would  be  denied.  Dr.  George  W.  Sam- 
son, then  president,  replied  to  her  by  letter  that  it  was 
deemed  by  the  faculty  and  College  Board  that  'her 
presence  would  distract  the  attention  of  the  students,' 
and  declined  to  admit  her,  after  having  invited  her  to 
the  opening  lectures.  The  next  year  the  National 
University  Law  Class  was  formed ;  and  in  connection 
with  it  a  class  for  ladies  was  opened,  fifteen  entering 
their  names." 

She  was  afterward  graduated,  and  admitted  to  the 
bar. 

•  MRS.  M.  M.  RICHER,  who  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
the  District  of  Columbia  in  May  last,  is  said  to  have 
passed  the  best  examination  among  seventeen  applicants, 
all  men  but  herself.  She  was  especially  well  versed  ii 
the  law  of  real  property,  a  branch  usually  deemed  to  be 
a  little  above  the  feminine  practitioner. 

MBS.  JUDITH  ELLEN  FOSTER  should  be  mentioned  as 


654  WOMEN   OJT  THE  CENTURY. 

among  the  lawyers  who  have  shown  woman's  power  to 
plead  successfully.  She  was  among  those  speakers  in 
the  temperance  campaign  who  secured  victory  for  prohi- 
bition in  Iowa  in  1882. 

Miss  Frances  E.  Willard  gives  a  fine  sketch  of  the 
lawyer,  MRS.  JUDITH  ELLEN  FOSTER,  in  "  Our  Union," 
for  September,  1881,  from  which  the  following  facts  are 
learned  :  — 

She  is  the  daughter  of  Rev.  Jotham  Horton,  a  Metho- 
dist clergyman,  born  in  Boston  in  1789,  and  of  a  Cape 
Cod  mother,  who  was  a  descendant  of  the  Revolutionary 
General  Warren.  Her  father  was  a  very  Boanerges,  but, 
says  Miss  Willard,  "Mrs.  Foster's  mother  was  quite  a  dif- 
ferent type,  the  daughter  of  a  sea-captain,  reared  in  the 
quiet  oc  a  New  England  farm ;  she  never  met  the  world 
till  called  to  stand  beside  this  fiery  champion  of  the 
Cross.  Beautiful  in  face  and  form,  and  graceful  in  man- 
ner, she  was  the  ideal  complement  of  her  husband. 
When  Judith  (for  I  can  but  call  her  thus,  believing  that 
the  Iowa  liquor  traffic  shall  yet  turn  out  to  be  her  Hol- 
ofernes)  was  not  quite  seven  years  old,  she  lost  this 
lovely  mother.  Born  at  Lowell,  Mass.,  November  3, 
1840,  motherless  at  seven,  and  an  orphan  at  twelve  years 
of  age,  Judith  Ellen's  short  life  had  already  compre- 
hended the  most  significant  vicissitudes,  when  her  eldest 
sister,  Mrs.  Pierce,  wife  of  a  wealthy  business  man  of 
Boston,  received  the  young  girl  into  her  home  and  di- 
rected her  education,  first  in  the  public  schools  of  Boston, 
then  at  Charlestown  Female  Seminary,  and  last  at  the 
Genesee  Wesleyan  Seminary,  Lima,  N.  Y.  Her  musical 
education  was  carried  on  in  Boston,  under  the  best 
teachers.  After  leaving  school  she  taught  briefly,  but  at 
twenty  years  of  age  (1860)  she  was  married  to  a  promis 
ing  young  merchant  of  that  city. 

"  Concerning  this  painful  episode  in  her  history,  the  fol- 


MRS.  JUDITH   ELLEN   FOSTER. 


WOMEN  LAWYERS.  657 

lowing  facts  are  furnished  by  a  friend  :  '  This  union, 
desired  and  approved  by  mutual  friends,  promised  naught 
but  joy  and  blessedness.  But  clouds  soon  gathered,  and 
after  years  of  poverty  and  toil  and  wanderings  to  and 
fro,  and  vain  attempts  to  cover  up  and  bear  the  shame 
that  came  because  she  bore  his  name,  nothing  was  left  of 
this  sad  marriage  but  two  children  for  her  to  love  and 
rear.  In  the  home  of  a  brother  she  put  on  widow's 
weeds,  sadder  far  than  those  that  come  at  death.' 

"  Having  secured  a  divorce,  she  was  married  to  Hon. 
E.  C.  Foster,  who  is  a  prominent  lawyer  and  politician 
of  Iowa,  a  life-long  temperance  man  and  earnest,  work- 
ing Christian. 

"  She  read  law  first  for  his  entertainment,  and  after- 
wards by  his  suggestion  and  under  his  supervision  she 
pursued  a  systematic  course  of  legal  study  with,  however, 
no  thought  of  admission  to  the  bar.  She  read,  with  her 
babies  about  her,  and  instead  of  amusing  herself  with 
fashion  plates  or  fiction,  such  learned  tomes  as  Black- 
stone  and  Kent,  Bishop  and  Story.  She  never  had  an 
ambition  for  public  speaking  or  public  life.  Although 
reared  in  the  Methodist  Church  she  had  never,  until 
about  the  time  of  the  crusade,  heard  a  woman  preach  01 
lecture,  but  when  that  trumpet  blast  resounded,  she,  in 
common  with  her  sisters,  responded  to  the  call,  and 
lifted  up  her  voice  in  protest  against  the  iniquity  of  the 
drink  traffic.  Her  acceptance  with  the  people  just  at 
the  time  when  she  had  completed  her  legal  studies 
seemed  a  providential  indication,  and  her  husband  said, 
'  If  you  can  talk  before  an  audience  you  could  before  a 
court  or  jury,'  and  he  insisted  on  her  being  examined 
for  admission  to  the  bar.  Prior  to  this  time  she  had 
prepared  pleadings  and  written  arguments  for  the  courts, 
but  without  formal  admission  she  could  not  personally 
appear.  She  was  examined,  admitted,  and  took  the  oath 


658  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUBY. 

to  *  support  the  Constitution  and  the  laws.  This  tri- 
umph won  the  approval  of  friends  and  the  increased 
hatred  of  the  liquor  party,  who  knew  it  meant  not  only 
warfare  upon  the  temperance  platform,  but  in  the  legal 
forum  also.  The  night  of  the  day  on  which  she  was 
admitted  to  practice,  saw  her  home  in  Clinton,  Iowa,  in 
flames.  There  was  little  doubt  that  the  fire  was  kindled 
by  two  liquor  sellers  whom  Mr.  Foster  had  prosecuted, 
and  who  had  just  returned  from  the  county  jail.  Mrs. 
Foster  was  the  first  woman  admitted  to  practice  in  the 
State  Supreme  Court.  She  has  recently  defended  a 
woman  under  sentence  of  death,  and  after  a  ten  days' 
trial,  in  which  our  lady  lawyer  made  the  closing  argu- 
ment, the  verdict  of  the  jury  was  modified  to  imprison- 
ment for  life.  Mrs.  Foster  enjoys  the  absolute  confidence 
and  support  of  her  husband  in  her  legal  and  temperance 
work.  He  was  its  instigator,  and  more  than  any  other 
rejoices  in  it. 

"  Mrs.  Foster  has  lost  two  little  girls.  Two  sons  re- 
main, one  of  whom  is  a  student  in  the  Northwestern 
University  at  Evanston,  111.,  and  another  in  the  grammar 
school  at  Clinton,  Iowa.  In  her  own  home  Mrs.  Fos- 
ter is  universally  honored,  and  for  her  beloved  Iowa  she 
has  grandly  wrought  from  the  beginning  until  now,  when, 
more  by  her  exertions  than  those  of  any  other  individual, 
the  Constitutional  Amendment  has  been  placed  before 
the  people.  Mrs.  Foster's  life  since  the  crusade  of  1874 
is  part  and  parcel  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union.  She  has  never  been  absent  from  one  of  our 
national  conventions ;  and  her  quick  brain,  ready  and 
pointed  utterance,  and  rare  knowledge  of  parliamentary 
forms  have  added  incalculably  to  the  success  of  these 
great  meetings.  There  is  not  a  State  at  the  North  in 
which  our  cause  is  not  to-day  more  powerful  than  it 
would  have  been  but  for  her  lo_p.-  and  her  eloquence. 


WOMEN  LAWYERS.  659 

Whether  making  her  great  two-hours'  argument  for  the 
Constitutional  Amendment,  as  she  did  night  after  night 
for  successive  months  in  the  Northwest,  or  following  the 
intricacies  of  debate  in  a  convention,  conducting  a  prayer 
meeting  between  the  sessions,  leading  the  music  of  an 
out-door  meeting,  answering  Dr.  Crosby  at  Tremont 
Temple,  Boston,  pleading  for  woman's  ballot  in  Iowa,  or 
for  prohibition  in  Washington;  whether  playing  with 
her  boys  at  home,  reading  Plato  in  the  cars,  preaching 
the  gospel  from  a  dry-goods  box  on  the  street  corner  of 
her  own  town,  or  speaking  in  the  great  tabernacle  at 
Chautauqua,  Mrs.  Foster  is  always  witty,  wise,  and  kind, 
and  thorough  mistress  of  the  situation.  Her  husband's 
heart  doth  safely  trust  in  her,  and  her  boys  glory  in  a 
mother  who  cannot  only  say  with  Cornelia  of  Rome, 
'these  are  my  jewels,'  but  whose  great  heart  reaches  out 
to  restore  to  the  rifled  casket  of  many  another  woman's 
home,  whence  strong  drink  has  stolen  them,  these  gems 
of  priceless  cost.  Best  of  all,  she  loves  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  above  her  chief  joy,  desires  and  labors  to 
build  up  His  Kingdom  on  the  earth." 

The  mention  of  Rev.  Dr.  Samson's  name  affords  an 
admirable  opportunity  of  telling  the  wise  and  witty 
course  of  one  brave  anti-slavery  Christian  woman  of 
the  century,  Mrs.  MARY  ELIZABETH  HERRICK,  a  native 
of  Beverly,  Mass.,  and  now  in  Amherst,  N.H.  The  pro- 
slavery  D.D.,  who  was  a  slave-owner  also  it  is  believed, 
was  occupying  the  pulpit  of  the  Baptist  church  in 
Beverly,  on  exchange  with  the  pastor.  For  a  long  time 
there  had  been  an  anti-slavery  prayer-meeting  observed 
by  some  of  the  members.  Mrs.  Herrick  wrote  the 
notice ;  and  the  doctor  was,  after  several  attempts  to 
dodge  the  matter,  obliged  to  read  the  notice  of  a  meet- 
ing to  "pray  for  God's  image  in  bonds."  The  ill  grace 


660  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

with  which  the  tacit  reproof  was  received  may  be 
imagined,  and  also  the  scarcely  repressed  mirth  of  the 
anti-slavery  women  of  that  ever  faithful  church. 

The  list  of  lawyers  may  be  incomplete,  but  probably 
it  will  never  be  less.  As  the  years  roll  on,  women  law- 
yers will  be  as  numerous  as  women  physicians,  and  as 
successful.  Many  a  girl  is  in  our  public  schools  to-day 
who  will  become,  in  her  degree,  a  Portia. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

WOMEN    JOURNALISTS. 

Caroline  A.  Soule  — Erama  Molloy  —  Pauline  W.  Davis  — Jane  G. 
Swisshelm  —  Amelia  Bloomer,  and  others. 

"  Words  are  things  ;  and  a  small  drop  of  ink, 
Falling  like  dew  upon  a  thought,  produces 
That  which  makes  thousands,  perhaps  millions,  tl 


"  They  that  handle  the  pen  of  the  writer."  —  JUDGES  v.  14 

"TTERY  many  women  are  journalists  and  reporters  in 
V  our  land.  Some  have  been  exceedingly  success- 
ful as  editors ;  and  no  more  sprightly  and  acceptable 
writers  have  been  connected  with  the  newspapers  of 
the  day,  since  the  days  when  Margaret  Fuller  wrote  for 
u  The  Tribune,"  than  the  women  who  are  or  have  been 
connected  with  our  best  papers.  One  of  these  toiling 
benefactors  with  the  pen  is  known  to  children  far  and 
wide  as  "  Aunt  Carra." 

"CAROLINE   A.  SOULE   (net  White)   was   born  in 


662  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTUKY. 

Albany,  N.Y.,  Sept.  3,  1824.  She  was  the  third  child 
"  in  a  family  of  six,  three  of  whom  died  in  infancy.  On 
her  father's  side  she  is  of  English  descent;  on  her 
mother's  of  Holland  and  French,  her  maternal  grand- 
mother being  a  pure  Knickerbocker,  and  her  maternal 
grandfather  a  pure  Frenchman.  At  the  time  of  her 
birth  her  father  was  a  Universalist,  her  mother  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church ;  and  Caroline  A. 
was  christened  in  the  latter  church.  Hei  mother,  how- 
ever, becoming  a  Universalist  very  soon  after,  the  little 
girl  was  brought  up  entirely  in  the  Universalist  faith. 

"  The  last  six  years  of  her  school  life  were  spent  at  the 
Albany  Female  Academy,  then  in  its  palmiest  days, 
and  admirably  presided  over  by  Alonzo  Crittenton,  and 
numbering  among  its  professors  E.  N.  Hosford,  now  of 
Cambridge  University.  She  was  graduated  in  July, 
1841,  with  high  honors,  receiving  one  of  the  three  gold 
medals  given  as  prizes  to  the  graduating  class  for  the 
best  English  essays.  Her  subject  was,  '  The  Benevo 
lence  of  God  not  fully  demonstrated  without  the  aid  of 
revelation.' 

"  In  April,  1842,  she  became  principal  of  the  female 
department  of  the  Clinton  Liberal  Institute,  Clinton, 
Oneida  Co.,  N.Y. 

"In  September  of  the  same  year,  Rev.  H.  B.  Soule, 
then  pastor  of  the  First  Universalist  Church  in  Troy, 
removed  to  Clinton,  becoming  principal  of  the  male 
department  of  the  institute.  The  acquaintance,  began 
while  they  were  residents  of  the  neighboring  cities, 
Albany  and  Troy,  ripened  into  affection,  the  result  of 
which  was  the  ceremony  of  marriage  on  the  28th  of 
August,  1843,  at  which  time  Mr.  Soule  was  pastor 
of  the  First  Universalist  Church  in  Utica.  In  May, 
1844,  they  removed  to  Boston,  Mass.,  Mr.  Soule  becom- 


"WOMEN  JOURNALISTS.  663 

ing  the  colleague  of  the  venerable  Hosea  Ballou.  In 
June,  1845,  they  removed  to  Gloucester,  Mass.,  assum- 
ing charge  of  the  parish  to  which  John  Murray  had 
formerly  preached.  The  climate  not  agreeing  with  Mr. 
Soule,  they  removed  in  May,  1846,  to  Hartford,  Conn., 
the  birthplace  of  the  father  of  Mrs.  Soule.  In  April, 
1851,  the  health  of  Mr.  Soule  requiring  country  life, 
they  removed  to  Granby,  Conn.,  where,  although  fulfill- 
ing the  duties  of  pastor  to  the  Universalist  parish,  he 
devoted  hours  formerly  given  to  study  to  out-door 
exercise.  In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  with  per- 
fectly restored  health,  he  contemplated  a  wider  field 
of  usefulness,  and  on  the  30th  of  December  removed  to 
Lyons,  Wayne  Co.,  N.Y.,  to  become  pastor  of  a  newly 
organized  parish,  his  family  remaining  in  Granby.  On 
the  29th  of  January,  1852,  Mr.  Soule  died  suddenly  at 
Lyons,  of  small-pox.  Mrs.  Soule  was  thus  left  a  widow, 
without  a  note  of  warning,  her  husband  having  been 
dead  and  buried  five  days  ere  the  letter  announcing 
his  decease  came  to  hand.  She  was  a  widow  with  five 
children,  three  sons  and  two  daughters,  —  the  eldest 
seven,  the  youngest  one  year  of  age.  She  was  left 
with  the  customary  pittance  of  ministers'  widows,  —  a 
library  of  a  few  hundred  volumes,  and  three  hundred 
dollars  in  bank. 

"  But  she  was  not  long  idle.  In  her  girlhood  she  had 
written  a  few  articles  for  the  newspapers ;  and  during 
her  wedded  life,  at  one  time  assisted  her  husband  in 
editing  the  '  Connecticut  Odd  Fellow,'  a  weekly  paper 
published  in  Hartford,  Conn.;  and  had  contributed 
several  tales  to  the  '  Hartford  Times,'  and  a  few  to 
Universalist  papers.  And  she  now  looked  to  her  pen 
for  means  to  provide  for  her  fatherless  household. 

"  Two  months  after  her  husband's  death,  she  com- 


564  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

menced  writing  the  memoir  of  his  life,  which  she  put 
to  press  in  July  of  the  same  year,  1852.  It  was  favora- 
bly received  by  the  denomination,  and  has  become  one 
of  its  standard  biographies.  The  following  winter  she 
became  a  professional  story- writer ;  contributing  to  the 
few  story-papers  then  published  in  the  United  States, 
and  also  being  a  regular  contributor  to  '  The  Ladies' 
Repository,'  the  oldest  ladies'  magazine  in  the  country. 
She  was  also  a  regular  correspondent  of  all  the  weekly 
Universalist  papers.  The  second  summer  of  her  widow- 
hood she,  in  addition  to  the  usual  demands  made 
upon  her  by  her  literary  efforts,  taught  school,  walking 
a  mile  and  a  half  morning  and  night,  and  doing  all  the 
housework  and  sewing  for  her  family  ;  and  also  editing, 
that  year  and  the  next,  '  The  Rose-Bud,'  an  annual  for 
the  young. 

"  In  July,  1853,  she  removed  to  Iowa,  becoming  one  of 
the  pioneers  of  Boone  County.  She  remained  here 
nearly  ten  years,  enduring  not  only  the  ordinary  hard- 
ships of  an  emigrant,  but  the  extraordinary  ones 
induced  by  the  commercial  crisis  of  1857  and  by  the 
war.  Her  eldest  son  was  given  to  her  country's  needs, 
and  died  in  the  army  in  1863,  at  the  tender  age  of 
seventeen.  Notwithstanding  all  the  manual  labor  that 
devolved  on  her  as  a  housekeeper,  without  servants,  and 
living  mostly  in  a  log  cabin,  she  never  for  a  single 
week  neglected  her  literary  labors.  She  was  soon 
made  Western  editor  of  '  The  Ladies'  Repository,'  held 
the  position  during  all  the  years  of  her  residence 
in  the  West.  She  continued  her  story-writing  for 
secular  papers,  and  contributed  largely  to  all  the  new 
literary  undertakings  of  the  State  :  at  one  time  editing 
a  country  paper  through  an  entire  political  campaign ; 
but  this  was  done  impersonally,  and  without  pay,  she 


WOMEN   JOURNALISTS.  665 

being  prompted  by  her  love  of  right,  to  do  the  hard, 
disagreeable  work.  She  also  wrote  three  books, 
'Home  Life,  or  a  Peep  across  the  Threshold,'  'The 
Pet  of  the  Settlement,'  and  '  Wine,  or  Water ; '  the 
last  a  temperance  story  which  has  since  been  repub- 
lished  in  a  Western  paper  as  a  serial. 

"An  affection  of  the  eyes,  which  threatened  blindness, 
obliged  her  to  return  to  the  East ;  and  from  1864  to 
1868  she  accomplished  but  little  literary  labor.  In 
July  of  the  latter  year  she  issued  the  first  number  of 
'  The  Guiding  Star,'  a  Sunday-school  paper,  of  which 
she  was  both  proprietor  and  editor,  and  which  paper, 
now  in  its  seventh  volume,  she  still  retains  as  indi- 
vidual property.  Since  1867  she  has  been  a  resident 
of  New  York  City,  spending  her  days  in  an  office  away 
down  town,  and  finding  rest  at  night  at  '  Content,'  her 
unpretending  little  home  in  Fordham.  Under  several 
noms  de  plume,  she  has  been  a  correspondent  of  the 
different  papers  of  the  Universalist  denomination,  being 
also  for  several  years  the  editor  of  the  juvenile  depart- 
ment of  '  The  Christian  Leader,'  and  at  one  time 
editor-in-chief  for  several  months.  She  has  been  presi- 
dent of  the  '  Woman's  Centenary  Association,'  the 
only  national  organization  of  women  in  the  Univer- 
salist Church,  from  its  start  in  1869  till  now,  during 
the  year  1874  travelling  nearly  twenty  thousand  miles 
in  its  behalf. 

"  Her  health  failing  in  the  winter  of  1875,  she  sailed 
for  Europe  in  May,  and  remained  till  October,  confin- 
ing her  travels  to  England  and  Scotland ;  and  while  in 
the  latter  country  preaching  several  times  to  Universal- 
ist families,  and  lecturing  on  temperance  and  the 
higher  education  of  woman." 

A  Cincinnati  paper  thus  refers  to  women  in  journal- 
ism,— 


666  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTURY. 

"  The  number  of  women  who  figure  on  the  metro- 
politan press  may  no  longer  be  counted.  Among  the 
daily  journals,  at  least,  their  name  is  legion  ;  and  not  a 
few  of  the  most  influential  weeklies  owe  much  of  their 
interest  to  the  sprightly  characteristics  of  the  feminine 
pen.  In  this  department,  if  in  no  other,  woman  stands 
the  acknowledged  equal  of  her  masculine  contempora- 
ries ;  and  the  only  question  which  affects  her  advance- 
ment in  any  branch  of  the  profession  is  her  fitness  for 
the  duties  of  that  branch.  Hence  we  see  MIDDY 
MORGAN,  in  her  coarse  boots  and  short  skirts,  plod- 
ding' through  the  mire  of  the  city  stock-yards  as  stock 
editor  of  '  The  Times  ;  '  while  the  charming  little 
widow  of  a  *  Herald '  reporter  .takes  up  her  husband's 
pen  just  where  he  lays  it  down,  and  carries  out  his 
unfinished  programme  with  as  much  exactitude  as  if 
she  had  been  all  her  life  accustomed  to  the  work.  One 
of  the  strongest  and  most  indefatigable  writers  on  the 
'  Star '  is  a  Shepard-ess ;  and  it  is  said  that  the  only 
redeeming  quality  in  the  columns  of  '  The  Sun  '  is 
what  flows  from  the  modifying  quills  of  two  women. 

"  Miss  Booth,  of  '  Harper's  Bazar,'  needs  no  intro- 
duction. Not  only  as  an  editor  has  her  name  become 
familiar  to  the  literary  world.  MARY  L.  BOOTH  first  dis- 
tinguished herself  as  an  historian  and  a  translator,  and 
for  many  years  confined  herself  almost  exclusively  to 
those  two  departments ;  but  since  1867,  when  she  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  '  Bazar,'  she  has  contributed 
greatly  by  her  rare  taste  and  discrimination  toward 
making  that  journal  one  •  of  the  most  excellent  of  its 
class.  Her  yearly  salary  of  four  thousand  dollars 
attests  the  high  estimate  of  her  services  by  Harper 
Brothers,  though  it  by  no  means  limits  the  annual 
income  of  this  industrious  woman.  Her  brain  and  pen 


WOMEN   JOTJENALISTS.  .    667 

are  ever  busy  ;  and  notwithstanding  her  regular  news- 
paper duties  the  work  of  the  translator  and  chronicler 
still  goes  on. 

Another  well-known  name  in  the  same  department  is 
that  of  JENNIE  JUNE,  wife  of  D.  G.  Croly,  managing 
editor  of  '  The  World,'  and  the  controlling  spirit  in 
'  Demorest's  Monthly.'  Mrs.  Croly's  connection  with 
the  '  New  York  Press,'  probably  dates  farther  back 
than  that  of  any  other  woman  so  engaged  at  present. 
She  discovered  her  literary  powers  very  early  in  life, 
and  readily  learned  to  put  them  to  profitable  use ;  at  a 
time,  too,  when  men  the  most  appreciative  and  kindly 
disposed  were  inclined  to  ridicule  the  idea  of  woman's 
fitness  for  any  branch  of  journalism.  She  was  first 
engaged  on  '  The  Times ; '  but,  on  the  establishment  of 
'  Demorest's  Monthly,'  the  enterprising  proprietors  of 
that  periodical  offered  her  a  larger  salary,  and  enticed 
her  away  to  the  sanctum  of  fashion.  There  she  has 
remained  ever  since ;  and  from  there  have  gone  forth 
the  thousands  of  manifold  letters  which  have  made  her 
nom  de  plume  a  household  name  throughout  the  land. 
This  system  of  correspondence  was  originated  by 
'  Jennie  June,'  and  proved  to  be  one  of  the  happy  hits  ot 
her  literary  career.  Beginning,  of  course,  on  a  small 
scale,  she  gradually  won  her  way  as  an  authority  on 
questions  of  dress,  till  before  many  years  nearly  every 
prominent  journal  in  the  country  was  glad  to  boast  of 
1  Jennie  June '  as  its  fashion  contributor  ;  and  to-day 
that  branch  of  her  work  alone  realizes  to  its  projector 
a  handsome  income.  At  one  time  she  prepared  and 
despatched  every  one  of  these  letters  herself ;  but  long 
since  she  delegated  that  unenviable  task  to  a  competent 
clerk,  contenting  herself  with  merely  dictating  the 
form,  and  afterward  appropriating  the  greenback 
returns,  minus  a  certain  percentage. 


668    .  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

"  Scarcely  less  known  than  Mrs.  Clolyv  or  less  popu- 
lar, is  MARY  CLEMMER  AMES  of  *  The  Independent.' 
Mrs.  Ames  is  somewhat  more  versatile  in  her  talents, 
and  has  alternately  filled  almost  every  department  of 
journalism.  Besides  being  an  able  prose  writer,  this 
lady  is  also  a  poetess ;  and  of  late  years  some  of  her 
finest  literary  efforts  have  been  in  a  poetic  vein.  While 
a  mere  schoolgirl,  "  M.  C.  A."  began  to  use  her  pen  as 
press  correspondent,  making  *  The  Springfield  Repub- 
lican '  her  first  field  of  exploit.  But  at  that  time  she 
wrote  at  rare  intervals,  and  solely  for  the  'fun'  of 
seeing  her  name  in  print.  It  was  not  until  a  much 
later  period  that  she  took  up  the  pen  in  earnest,  and 
her  regular  connection  with  the  New  York  press, 
began  only  in  1865.  From  that  time  probably  dates 
her  introduction  to  the  literary  world.  As  a  Washing- 
ton correspondent  she  became  suddenly  very  popular. 
Her  style  was  tinctured  with  warmth,  discrimination, 
pleasantry,  and  sound  common  sense.  People  learned 
to  regard  her  as  reliable  as  well  as  entertaining ;  and 
'A  Woman's  Letter  from  Washington,'  was  never 
without  its  complement  of  admiring  readers.  For  the 
past  two  years  Mrs.  Ames  has  been  attached  to  the 
editorial  corps  of  *  The  Independent,'  having,  hi  addi- 
tion, a  certain  amount  of  regular  work  on  '  The  Brook- 
lyn Union.'  Her  salary  is  now  ,p  wards  of  five  thou- 
sand dollars  a  year. 

"The  only  woman  employed  on  the  staff  of  'The 
New  York  Herald '  is  Mrs.  BUTTS,  a  brilliant  and 
painstaking  journalist.  The  husband  of  this  lady  was 
formerly  connected  with  the  same  sheet ;  and,  after  his 
death,  she  made  application  for  piece-work,  which  was 
cheerfully  furnished  her.  Her  thoroughness,  despatch, 
and  unusual  intellectuality  were  the  subjects  of  con- 


WOMEN  JOURNALISTS.  669 

etant  comment  by  those  whose  business  it  is  to  look  out 
for  talent ;  and  the  result  was  an  invitation  to  join  the 
staff.  In  reviewing  the  past,  she  says  of  herself,  — 

" '  I  thank  Heaven  that  I  know  how  to  work.  Should 
any  thing  happen  to  my  literary  prospects,  I  could 
make  my  living  as  a  dressmaker,  milliner,  seamstress, 
housekeeper,  cook,  or  laundress.  I  have  done  my  own 
housework,  and  gloried  in  it ;  have  made  my  husband's 
shirts,  and  washed  and  ironed  them,  not  only  because 
I  could  really  do  them  better  than  a  professional  laun- 
dress, but  in  order  to  eke  out  a  reporter's  meagre 
salary.' 

"  Mrs.  MAKY  E.  DODGE  is  one  of  our  most  successful 
literary  workers,  and  shows  what  a  woman  can  do  in 
literature.  She  is  the  daughter  of  the  well-known 
Prof.  Mapes,  inventor  of  the  fertilizers,  and  owns  part 
of  the  latter's  farm,  two  miles  from  Newark,  which  is 
under  the  management  of  P.  T.  Quinn,  formerly  agri- 
cultural editor  of  *  The  Tribune,'  and  author  of  sev- 
eral books  on  farming.  Mrs.  Dodge  has  a  salary  of 
three  thousand  dollars  from  '  Hearth  and  Home,'  for 
writing  exclusively  for  that  journal.  She  excels  par- 
ticularly as  a  writer  of  children's  stories,  and  combines 
accuracy  of  fact  with  beauty  of  style.  Her  story  of 
*  Hans  Brinker '  shows  great  care  and  study,  and  gives  a 
vivid  picture  of  Dutch  life  and  adventure.  Mrs.  Dodge, 
though  the  mother  of  two  boys,  whom  she  supports  at 
college,  is  young,  handsome,  and  lively  as  a  girl  of 
twenty,  and  is  excellent  company." 

The  Philadelphia  correspondent  of  "  The  Wilming- 
ton (Del.)  Commercial "  says :  — 

"A  paragraph  in  one  of  our  city  papers  recently 


670  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

claimed  my  attention,  referring  to  women  workers  on 
the  press.  I  do  not  speak  of  literary  women  in  the 
old  sense,  but  of  deliberate  and  genuine  newspaper 
workers,  who  do  just  as  much  work  as  men  do,  in  many 
cases  better  than  men,  and  nearly  always  more  con- 
scientiously. The  account  only  mentioned  ladies  con- 
nected with  New  York  papers ;  but  it  will  do  no  harm, 
when  the  list  is  revised,  to  add  the  name  of  a  Philadel- 
phia writer.  I  refer  to  Miss  LOUISE  STOCKTON,  the 
literary  and  musical  editor  of  '  The  Morning  Post.' 
There  is  not  a  man  connected  with  our  newspapers 
who  writes  with  more  power  and  ease,  who  has  a  finer 
style,  and  (what  is  better  than  style  even)  who  has 
more  ideas,  than  Miss  Stockton.  On  musical  matters 
especially  (we  all  have  our  '  forts,'  as  A.  Ward  used 
to  say,  or  what  our  friends  call  our  fortes,  which  comes 
to  much  the  same  thing)  she  is  not  to  be  approached 
hereabouts,  neither  do  I  find  her  equal  among  the  New 
York  critics." 

Mrs.  ELIZABETH  CADY  ST ANTON  and  Miss  SUSAN  B. 
ANTHONY  were  editors  and  proprietors  of  the  reform 
paper  called  "  The  Revolution."  In  the  West  »  The 
Agitator  "  was  started,  and  Mrs.  MARY  A.  LIVERMOKE 
was  connected  with  it  editorally,  as  she  was  also  with 
her  husband's  paper  "  The  New  Covenant."  She  was 
afterwards,  for  two  or  three  years,  editor-in-chief  of  the 
excellent  "  Woman's  Journal,"  of  which  LUCY  STONE 
and  JULIA  WARD  HOWE  are  still  editorially  connected. 
Mrs.  Livermore  has  done  a  vast  amount  of  editorial 
work,  and  Mrs.  Howe  was  formerly  connected  with  "  The 
Boston  Commonwealth  "  editorially.  Rev.  PHEBE  A. 
HANAFORD  was  editor  for  three  years  of  the  "  Ladies' 
Repository,  "  a  monthly  magazine  of  the  Universalists, 


WOMEN  JOURNALISTS.  671 

published  in  Boston,  and  at  the  same  time  edited  "  The 
Myrtle,"  a  sabbath-school  paper.  She  had  charge  also 
of  the  children's  department  in  "  The  Universalist,"  of 
which  paper,  and  also  of  "  The  Universalist  Quarterly," 
she  read  the  proof.  For  many  years  previous  she  had 
reported  for  various  papers,  and  also  written  editorially, 
book  notices,  &c. ;  and  the  routine  of  office-work  was 
very  familiar  to  her  before  she  became  editor,  though, 
doubtless,  there  was  "  room  for  improvement."  Mrs. 
HENRIETTA  A.  BINGHAM  followed  Mrs.  Hanaford  on 
the  "  Repository  "  and  "  Myrtle,"  and  proved  herself  an 
able  editor.  Mrs.  ELIZABETH  M.  BRUCE  is  the  pres- 
ent editor  of  the  "  Myrtle."  FRANCES  ELLEN  BURR 
has  been  editorially  connected  with  her  brother's1  paper 
in  Hartford,  and  displayed  similar  genius.  HARRIET 
N.  AUSTIN  and  Dr.  M.  CORA  BLAND  have  ably  edited 
periodicals,  literary  and  hygienic.  SARAH  L.  JOY 
WHITE  and  NELLIE  McKAY  HUTCHLNSON  have  shown 
themselves  excellent  reporters.  Both  write  admirable 
poetry. 

Mrs.  EMILY  LEE  SHERWOOD  was  born  in  Madison, 
Ind.,  on  March  28,  1829,  and  was  daughter  of  Monroe 
Wells  and  Mary  Lee. 

Madison  is  situated  on  the  southern  border  of  In- 
diana, and  was  once  a  very  brisk  business  place.  It  is 
separated  from  Kentucky  by  la  belle  riviere  Ohio, 
and  surrounded  by  picturesque  hills,  and  possesses  sites 
for  many  fine  views.  Her  love  for  nature  is  rooted  in 
her  native  hills,  over  which  she  wandered  in  search  of 
early  spring  flowers,  or  to  enjoy  a  fine  view  of  land- 
scape or  a  magnificent  sunset. 

Her  father  was  an  architect  and  a  builder,  a  man  of 
fine  conversational  powers,  and  much  general  intelli- 

1  Hon.  Alfred  E.  Burr. 


672  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTTJB'Y. 

gence.  Both  parents  were  good  singers,  and  the  home 
atmosphere  was  always  bookish  and  music'l;  although 
their  style  of  living  was  in  other  respects  plain,  and 
such  as  usually  characterizes  the  well-to-do  mechanic. 
There  were  always  a  plenty  of  flowers,  peaches,  cher- 
ries, and  grapes,  of  their  own  raising.  She  lost  her 
father  when  she  was  ten  years  of  age,  also  her  youngest 
brother  at  the  same  time,  by  cholera,  leaving  her  the 
youngest  of  four  children,  two  brothers  and  a  sister. 
Up  to  that  time  her  schooling  had  been  conducted  at  a 
select  school,  quite  celebrated  for  many  years  in  that 
vicinity,  —  Mrs.  Hunt's,  who  could  boast  of  having 
helped  to  educate  nearly  all  the  children  of  Madison, 
at  one  time  or  another,  and  who  still  lives.  When  her 
father  died,  her  mother,  for  economical  considerations, 
removed  her  to  the  public  grammar  school,  where  she 
passed  an  examination,  and  entered  the  high  school, 
where  she  remained  until  in  her  sixteenth  year,  then 
moved  to  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  to  be  with  her  youngest 
brother,  who  was  publishing  a  Universalist  journal, 
"The  Herald  and  Era."  Wishing  to  assist  herself 
and  family  pecuniarily,  she  was  examined  for  a  teacher 
in  the  public  schools,  passed ;  but,  no  vacancy  occurring 
then,  she  went  into  the  business  office  of  "  The  Herald 
and  Era,"  at  a  salary  of  eight  dollars  per  month.  Her 
duties  were  to  keep  books,  read  proof,  write  wrappers, 
and  arrange  copy  for  the  "  Family  and  Youth's  Depart- 
ment "  of  the  paper.  Here  she  began  to  write  for 
children ;  also  stories.  She  continued  in  the  office  for 
four  years,  when  she  left  it  to  be  married,  Oct.  19, 1859, 
to  Henry  L.  Sherwood,  a  young  attorney  just  admitted 
to  the  bar. 

A  part  of  the  year  1860  she  spent  in  Madison,  Ind., 
with  her  sister,  her  husband  being  away  from  home  in 


WOMEN  JOURNALISTS.  673 

pursuit  of  a  settlement.  When  the  war  of  Rebellion 
occurred,  he  went  in  as  private,  was  promoted  to 
colonel's  staff  duty,  after  which  his  wife  joined  him, 
and  remained  on  rebellious  territory  for  over  a  year ; 
while  there,  contributed  some  "  war  sketches "  for  In- 
dianapolis papers,  also  for  "  Ladies'  Repository." 

After  the  war  she  spent  the  first  winter  in  Marietta, 
Ohio,  her  husband  going  to  Washington,  D.C.,  on  busi- 
ness, formed  a  partnership,  and  there  they  now  reside. 
She  says  of  herself,  "  I  was  born  into  a  Universalist 
home.  Have  contributed  principally  to  denominational 
journals,  'Ladies'  Repository,'  'Star  in  the  West,' 
'  Leader,'  and  to  '  Daily  Commercial,'  Indianapolis, 
Ind. ;  also  '  Daily  Republican,'  same  place.  Never 
saved  any  thing  I  published.  Have  no  scrap-book. 
Have  been  a  voracious  reader  and  student  all  my  life. 
My  taste  inclines  toward  '  biography,'  or  the  essay  style. 

"Music,  painting,  geometry,  and  French  have  all 
been  pursued  under  private  instruction,  —  don't  con- 
sider myself  good  in  either, — but  they  help  to  form 
one's  taste,  to  teach  one  to  reason  geometrically  cor- 
rect, and  embellish  one's  hours  of  labor  with  elegant 
sources  of  relaxation. 

"  My  disposition  is  domestic,  —  my  home  and  family 
the  first  objects  in  my  regard,  although  I  am  not  insen- 
sible to  the  pleasures  of  a  literary  life ;  and,  had  I  not 
been  married,  no  doubt  would  have  followed  my  tastes 
for  authorship  as  a  profession."  Mrs.  Sherwood  is  a 
woman  of  the  century  who  will  be  heard  from  in  the 
future,  if  health  allows."  9 

EMMA  MOLLOY,  the  sprightly  wife  of  an  editor, 
and  herself  editorially  connected  with  an  Elkhart, 
Ind.,  paper,  with  "  The  Advance  Guard,"  a  temper- 
ance sheet,  and  with  other  papers  as  correspondent  and 


674  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

reporter,  is  one  of  the  live  women  of  the  century, 
who  through  various  trials  and  struggles,  borne  with 
Christian  patience,  trust,  and  fortitude,  and  overcome 
in  the  might  of  real  religion,  has  won  a  high  place 
among  speakers  for  temperance,  and  workers  for  the 
press.  She  was  born  in  South  Bend,  Ind.,  July  19, 
1839.  She  was  married  to  a  printer  when  young,  and 
had  two  children,  both  of  whom,  with  their  father,  died, 
but  not  till  she  had  spent  weary  years  in  toiling  for 
them.  The  brave  little  woman  says  in  a  letter  to  the 
writer,  — 

"  I  returned  to  my  native  town  broken  in  health  and 
spirits,  and  again  commenced  teaching  school.  My 
own  education  was  acquired  in  a  common  country 
school ;  and  an  extensive  reading  and  contact  with  the 
world  have  given  me  what  little  polish  I  have  since 
acquired.  Mr.  Molloy  becoming  interested  in  me 
through  numerous  articles  which  I  wrote  at  this  time 
for  the  '  National  Union,'  of  which  he  was  editor, 
proved  a  valuable  friend.  Our  friendship  rapidly 
ripened  into  a  warm  affection,  and  in  the  fall  of  18G8  I 
entered  into  partnership  with  him  in  '  The  Union'  as 
his  wife.  Mr.  M.  was  struggling  with  insufficient 
means  to  carry  on  his  business,  and  we  were  hopelessly 
in  debt;  but  we  believed  that  energy  and  industry 
would  carry  our  little  ship  safely  through.  I  took  my 
place  at  the  compositor's  stand,  and  in  a  short  time 
could  *  set  my  galley  '  as  rapidly  as  any  compositor  in 
the  office.  We  worked  night  and  day,  hand  in  hand 
and  heart  to  heart,  I  cjping  the  main  part  of  the  local- 
izing, and  my  husband  the  heavy  editorials.  Country 
editors  have  a  world  of  little  things  to  do,  to  which  the 
city  editor  is  a  stranger ;  but  I  naturally  fell  into  the 
routine  of  collecting,  soliciting,  writing,  and  type-set- 


WOMEN   JOURNALISTS.  675 

ting,  until  I  became  indispensable  to  my  husband.  I 
think  every  true  woman  feels  a  pride  in  the  thought 
that  she  is  truly  a  helpmeet ;  and  I  felt  great  pride  in 
my  business.  We  gradually  worked  out  of  debt,  and, 
having  a  good  opportunity  to  sell,  moved  to  Cortland, 
N.Y.,  where  we  bought  '  The  Cortland  Journal,'  and 
'Homer  Herald,'  both  papers  being  printed  in  the 
*  Cortland  '  office.  My  health  not  being  good  in  the 
East,  however,  we  again  disposed  of  our  office,  and,  at 
the  earnest  solicitation  of  business  friends  in  Elkhart, 
started  '  The  Daily  Observer,'  a  Republican  paper. 
When  the  Crusade  storm  first  broke  upon  the  North- 
west, I  learned  for  the  first  time  my  oratorical  powers. 
At  a  large  mass-meeting  in  my  own  native  town,  at 
which  my  honored  friend  Schu}Tler  Colfax  presided,  I 
made  my  debut.  As  I  stood  before  the  vast  throng, 
all  the  waves  of  sorrow,  that  had  gone  over  me  during 
the  weary  years  of  my  first  marriage  seemed  beating 
upon  the  shores  of  feeling  ;  and  living  them  over  again 
enabled  me  to  touch  the  tender  chords  of  very  many 
hearts  in  the  audience.  If  I  have  any  eloquence,  it  is 
that  born  of  sorrow  and  a  hard,  bitter  struggle  with 
the  world ;  and  my  soul  yearns  over  the  vast  army  of 
helpless  women  who  find  the  breakers  too  much  for 
their  frail  little  barks.  Is  it  any  wonder  so  many  of 
them  go  down  ?  At  present,  added  to  my  work  on  the 
'  Observer,'  I  am  editing  the  Political  Reform  Depart- 
ment in  '  The  Advance  Guard,'  —  the  State  temper- 
ance organ,  published  by  Hon.  J.  J.  Talbott,  the  Grand 
Worthy  Chief  Templar  of  our  State.  I  have  more 
calls  to  lecture  in  the  temperance  field  West  than  I  can 
fill ;  but  there  is  no  money  in  it,  and  my  literary  lec- 
tures pay  much  better.  Next  season  I  expect  to 
devote  my  time  to  literary  lectures." 


676  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

Success  to  her  in  the  future,  far  beyond  that  of  the 
past! 

Mrs.  Hale  mentions  Mrs.  CAROLINE  A.  GILMAN  as 
one  who  edited,  in  1832,  the  first  juvenile  newspaper 
in  the  Union.  It  was  called  "  The  Rosebud."  Mrs. 
LYDIA  MAEIA  CHILD  edited  the  "Juvenile  Miscel- 
lany," and  was  editorially  connected  with  "  The  Anti- 
Slavery  Standard."  For  lack  of  information,  and 
space  also,  the  names  only  of  Mrs.  RUNKLE,  SABA 
A.  HUBBABD,  ALICE  HUNTLEY  PAYNE,  MABGABET 
BUCHANAN  SULLIVAN,  ANNIE  E.  KEBB,  ELIZA  ALLEN 
STABB,  Miss  LO.NGSTBEET,  are  here  mentioned,  with 
the  assurance  that  they  are  able  and  industrious  jour- 
nalists. 

"  The  Lowell  Offering  "  was  the  first  magazine  in 
America,  if  not  in  the  world,  entirely  sustained  by 
working-women.  "  It  was  the  first  work  written 
entirely,  by  factory  girls,  and  the  first  magazine  or 
journal  written  exclusively  by  women  in  all  the 
world,"  says  Rev.  Abel  C.  Thomas.  "A  volume 
entitled  *  Mind  Among  the  Spindles,'  being  a  selection 
from  '  The  Offering,'  was  published  in  England  under 
the  auspices,  I  believe,  of  Harriet  Martineau.  She,  at 
all  events,  was  the  prompter  of  a  fine  review  in  "  The 
London  Athenaeum.'  This  was  early  in  1843.  The 
compliment  was  acknowledged  by  the  present  of  an 
elegantly  bound  copy  of  the  first  and  second  volumes 
of  the  new  series,  with  the  inscription,  *  Harriet 
Martineau,  from  Harriet  Farley,  Harriet  Curtis,  and 
Harriet  Lees.'  The  distinguished  authoress  said  in 
reply,  *  It  is  welcome  as  a  token  of  kindness  and  for  its 
own  value,  and,  above  all,  as  a  proof  of  sympathy 
between  you  and  me  in  regard  to  that  subject,  the  true 
honor  and  interests  of  our  sex.' " 


WOMEN  JOURNALISTS.  677 

There  is  one  editor  who  has  passed  from  earth  who 
shall  not  be  forgotten.  From  the  biographical  sketch 
published  in  the  Toledo  "Ballot-Box,"  of  which 
SARAH  R.  L.  WILLIAMS  is  editor,  the  following  is 
taken,  almost  as  a  whole.  It  was  written  by  Mrs.  E. 
0.  Stanton :  — 

MRS.   PAULINA  WRIGHT  DAVIS. 

"Paulina  Kellogg  was  born  in  Bloomfield,  N.Y., 
Aug.  7,  1818,  the  very  day  Capt.  Hall  delivered  up 
the  fort  at  Detroit.  Her  father  was  a  volunteer  in  the 
army. 

"  Her  grandfather,  Saxton,  was  a  colonel  in  the  Revo- 
lution, and  belonged  to  Lafayette's  staff. 

"  Her  parents  were  conservative  in  all  their  opin- 
ions, remarkably  fine-looking,  and  sincerely  attached 
to  each  other/  Paulina,  the  third  of  five  children,  was 
always  thoughtful,  sensitive,  and  delicate.  When  she 
was  about  four  years  old  her  grandfather  bought  a 
large  tract  of  land  at  Cambria,  fifteen  miles  from 
Niagara  Falls,  where  he  established  homes  for  all  his 
children. 

"  When  seven  years  old,  she  was  adopted  by  an  aunt, 
and  moved  to  Le  Roy,  N.Y.,  where  she  was  educated. 

"  With  such  ancestry  and  early  experiences,  we  can 
readily  account  for  Paulina's  love  of  freedom,  and  cour- 
age in  attacking  the  evils  and  false  customs  of  society. 

"  At  the  early  age  of  thirteen  Paulina  joined  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  .  .  . 

"  She  was  a  religious  enthusiast,  and  in  revival  sea- 
sons was  one  of  the  bright  and  shining  lights  in  exhor- 
tation and  prayer.  When  she  was  about  fifteen,  a  dis- 
cussion came  up  in  the  church,  as  to  whether  women 
should  be  permitted  to  speak  and  pray.  Some  of  the 


6?8  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

deacons  protested  against  a  practice  in  ordinary  times 
that  might  be  tolerated  in  revival  seasons.  But  the 
women  who  had  discovered  their  gifts  in  these  periods 
of  religious  excitement  were  not  easily  remanded  to 
silence.  Thus  was  the  church  then  as  now  distracted 
with  the  troublesome  question  of  '  women's  rights.' 

"  Sometimes  a  liberal  pastor  would  accord  a  latitude 
denied  by  the  elders  and  deacons.  Sometimes  a  whole 
church  would  be  more  liberal  than  neighboring  ones ; 
hence  individuals  and  congregations  were  continually 
persecuted  and  arraigned  for  violation  of  church  dis- 
cipline, and  God's  law  as  men  interpreted  it. 

"  On  Jan.  12,  1833,  being  then  nineteen  years  old, 
she  married  Francis  Wright,  a  merchant  of  wealth  and 
position  in  Utica,  N.Y. 

"They  were  the  moving  spirits  in  the  first  anti- 
slavery  convention  ever  held  in  Utica,  which  was 
broken  up  by  an  organized  mob,  and  adjourned  to 
Peterboro,  the  home  of  Gerrit  Smith.  Mr.  Wright's 
house  was  surrounded,  piazzas  and  fences  torn  down, 
and  piled  up  with  wood  and  hay  against  the  house, 
which  they  evidently  intended  to  burn  down. 

"  But  several  ladies  who  had  come  to  attend  the  con- 
vention were  staying  there ;  and,  as  was  their  custom, 
they  had  family  prayers  at  the  usual  hour,  in  the  midst 
of  the  row. 

"  The  leaders,  peeping  through  the  blinds,  saw  a 
number  of  women  on  their  knees,  in  prayer :  the  sight 
seemed  to  soften  their  wrath,  and  change  their  pur- 
poses ;  for  they  quietly  withdrew,  leaving  the  women 
in  undisturbed  possession  of  the  house.  The  attitude 
of  the  church  at  this  time  being  strongly  pro-slavery, 
they  withdrew,  as  most  abolitionists  did,  from  all 
church  organizations,  and  devoted  themselves  with 


"WOMEN  JOURNALISTS.  679 

renewed  zeal  to  anti-slavery,  temperance,  moral  reform, 
and  the  education  of  women. 

"  In  this  way  they  passed  twelve  happy  years  togeth- 
er in  mutual  improvement,  and  co-operation  in  every 
good  work. 

"  Mr.  Wright,  having  a  delicate  organization  and 
great  executive  ability,  was  constantly  taxing  his 
powers  of  mind  and  body  to  the  utmost,  until  at  last 
he  fell  a  victim  to  dyspepsia,  which,  after  a  long,  wast- 
ing illness  of  two  years,  terminated  his  life. 

"  Having  improved  her  leisure  hours  in  the  study  of 
anatomy  and  physiology,  Mrs.  Wright  commenced  her 
public  work  soon  after  the  death  of  her  husband ;  he 
having  been  unfortunate  in  business,  she  was  thrown 
£n  her  own  resources  for  support. 

"  As  early  as  1844  she  began  her  lectures  to  women. 
She  imported  from  Paris  the  first  femme  modele  that 
was  ever  brought  to  this  country,  which  she  recently 
presented  to  '  The  Homoeopathic  College  for  Women,' 
in  New  York. 

"  In  1849  she  was  again  married,  to  Hon.  Thomas 
Davis,  a  man  of  wealth,  position,  sound  common  sense, 
and  great  nobility  of  character.  He  was  a  member  of 
Congress  one  term,  and  of  the  Rhode  Island  Legisla- 
ture for  seven  years. 

.  "  For  nearly  three  years  Mrs.  Davis  published  '  The 
Una,'  almost  at  her  own  expense. 

"  Though  Mrs.  Davis  had  no  living  children  of  her 
own,  yet  the  best  elements  of  motherhood  were  devel- 
oped in  her  character. 

"  She  adopted  several  sons  and  daughters,  some  in 
early  infancy,  brought  them  up  with  tenderness  and 
care.  Hers  is  not  the  mere  selfish  animal  instinct  of 
loving  its  own,  but  a  real  love  of  the  many  pleasing 


680  WOMEN  OF  THE   CEJtfTUBY. 

characteristics  of  childhood,  having  an  unusual  sympa- 
thy and  attraction  for  young  people,  and  great  ten- 
derness for  the  helpless  and  innocent.  Motherless 
children,  disappointed  youth,  and  unfortunate  women 
have  ever  found  a  shelter  in  her  hospitable  home. 

"  In  1859  Mrs.  Davis,  being  in  delicate  health,  vis- 
ited Europe  for  the  first  time,  and  spent  a  year  travel- 
ling in  France,  Italy,  Austria,  and  Germany,  devoting 
her  leisure  hours  to  visiting  picture  galleries  and  the 
study  of  art.  On  her  return  home  she  entered  with 
renewed  zest  into  her  lifelong  work,  the  education  and 
enfranchisement  of  woman. 

"  Having  decided  to  celebrate  the  second  decade  of 
the  suffrage  movement  in  this  country,  Mrs.  Davis  took 
the  entire  charge  of  all  the  preliminary  arrangements, 
the  foreign  as  well  as  home  correspondence,  and  pub- 
lished a  complete  report  of  all  the  proceedings  of  the 
convention  at  her  own  expense. 

"  She  gave  at  the  opening  session  a  comprehensive 
review  of  the  individual  work  accomplished,  and  the 
many  successive  steps  in  progress  during  the  twenty 
years,  which  makes  a  very  valuable  contribution  to  our 
history. 

"  One  of  Mrs.  Davis's  favorite  ideas,  which  she  has 
often  proposed,  is  a  '  Woman's  Congress,'  to  discuss  all 
questions  relating  to  our  political  and  social  life. 

"  There  have  been  two  attempts  made  to  realize 
this,  both  partially  successful. 

"  Her  idea  is  to  have  a  body  of  wise,  mature  women 
meet  every  year  in  Washington,  at  the  same  time  Con- 
gress convenes,  to  consider  the  national  questions  that 
occupy  popular  thought,  and  demand  prompt  action; 
especially  to  present  them  in  their  moral  bearings  and 
relations,  while  our  representatives  discuss  them  from 


WOMEN   JOURNALISTS.  681 

a  material  and  statistical  point  of  view,  as  men  usually 
do. 

"  Thus  only,  she  thinks,  can  we  ever  have  the  com- 
plete humanitarian  idea  on  these  many  important  ques- 
tions. All  legislation  must  necessarily  be  fragmentary, 
so  long  as  one-half  the  race  give  it  no  thought  whatso- 
ever. 

"  In  1871  she  again  visited  Europe,  in  company  with 
her  niece  and  adopted  daughter.  She  spent  two  years 
abroad,  making  extensive  travels  and  many  pleasant 
acquaintances,  and  again  devoted  herself  quite  ear- 
nestly to  art. 

"  She  took  lessons  of  Carl  Marks  in  Florence,  and 
spent  much  of  her  time  in  Julian's  life-school,  the  only 
one  open  to  women. 

"  In  Paris  she  spent  hours  every  day  copying  in  the 
Louvre  and  Luxembourg. 

"  Her  house  is  decorated  with  many  fine  copies  of 
old  paintings  and  a  few  of  her  own  creation. 

"  Her  enthusiasm  in  both  art  and  reform  may  seem 
to  some  a  singular  combination ;  but,  with  her  view  of 
life,  it  is  a  natural  one. 

"  On  the  29th  of  May  she  sailed  for  America,  and 
reached  her  home  in  safety ;  but  the  disease  that  had 
been  threatening  her  for  years  (rheumatic  gout)  began 
to  develop  itself,  until  in  the  autumn  she  was  confined 
to  her  room,  unable  at  times  even  to  walk.  It  was 
thus  I  found  her  in  a  large  arm-chair,  quietly  making 
all  her  preparations  for  the  sunny  land,  resigned  to  stay 
or  to  go,  cheerfully  to  accept  the  inevitable,  whatever 
that  might  be.  She  rests  in  the  thought  that  she  has 
done  what  she  could  to  leave  the  world  better  than  she 
found  it.  Sitting  at  the  twilight  hour,  hand  in  hand, 
after  a  long  silence,  she  said,  '  How  petty  the  ridicule 


682  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

and  persecution  we  have  passed  through,  that  seemed 
so  grievous  at  the  time,  now  appear,  compared  with  the 
magnitude  of  the  revolution  we  have  inaugurated ! ' ' 

The  distinguished  editor  of  "  The  Lady's  Book,"  Mrs. 
Sarah  Josepha  Hale,  is  best  known  by  her  valuable 
book,  "  Woman's  Record."  The  reader  is  referred  to 
that  for  a  sketch  of  the  able  author. 

Mrs.  ABIGAIL  WHITTLESEY  GOODEICH  was  for  years 
editor  of  the  "  Mother's  Magazine  ; "  Mrs.  Hiscox  and 
Mrs.  CLARKE  as  editors  of  "  The  Mother's  Journal." 
Mrs.  MARGARET  L.  BAILEY  edited  "  The  Youth's 
Monthly  Visitor." 

Says  the  "  Woman's  Journal  "  for  May  27,  1871 :  — 

"  Mrs.  ANNIE  A.  E.  MACDOWELL,  late  editor  of  the 
woman's  department  of  the  Philadelphia  '  Sunday  De- 
spatch,' and  who  is  now  connected  in  the  same  capacity 
with  '  The  Sunday  Republic,'  we  are  informed,  was  the 
first  woman  in  the  United  States  who  published  and 
edited  a  newspaper  devoted  to  the  industrial  rights  of 
woman,  the  whole  business  of  which  was  conducted  by 
women,  who  were  paid  the  full  prices  of  the  M.-.n's 
Typographical  Union." 

Mrs.  C.  M.  KIRKLAND  was  editor  of  "  The  Union 
Magazine,"  afterwards  "  Sartain's."  Mrs.  FOWLER, 
(LYDIA)  and  Mrs.  CHARLOTTE  F.  WELLS  have  been 
editorially  connected  with  the  "  Phrenological  Journal," 
of  which  the  latter  has  now  special  charge,  with  able 
assistants.  Mrs.  WITTENMEYER,  Mrs.  JOHNSON,  and 
other  women,  are  conducting  an  able  temperance  paper, 
"  The  Women's  Temperance  Union,"  published  in  Brook- 
lyn, N.Y.,  Mrs.  ELEANOR  D.  ROCKWOOD  has  also  done 
excellent  editorial  work.  EMMA  L.  BALDWIN  (now 
deceased)  was  an  able  reporter  for  her  brother's  papei 


WOMEN  JOURNALISTS.  683 

in  Peoria.  She  is  held  in  loving  remembrance  by  the 
writer.  AMELIA  BLOOMER  and  JANE  G.  SWISSHELM 
have  each  labored  editorially  in  a  manner  to  deserve 
the  gratitude  of  all  women.  Biographical  sketches  of 
them  may  be  found  in  the  "  Woman's  Journal."  "  Mrs. 
Swisshelm  started  *  The  Pittsburgh  Saturday  Visitor ' 
in  January,  1848,  using  for  the  purpose  the  patrimony 
left  her  by  her  mother.  It  had  but  three  subscribers 
when  the  first  number  was  issued ;  but  the  street  was 
blocked  for  hours  by  a  crowd  waiting  its  appearance, 
and  in  a  short  time  the  circulation  reached  seven  thou- 
sand." Mrs.  Swisshelm's  life  has  been  one  of  shadow 
and  struggle  and  triumph,  so  that  she  said  to  Mrs. 
Burleigh,  "  Oh !  but  it  is  good  to  have  lived  and  suf- 
fered and  worked,  to  know  that  the  Lord  is  over  all, 
and  that  nothing  can  go  wrong  with  us  if  only  we  are 
right." 

Mrs.  Bloomer's  paper  "  '  The  Lily,'  was  the  first  one 
owned  and  conducted  in  all  its  departments  by  a 
woman,  and  working  in  the  interests  of  women."  So 
she  says  herself,  and  adds,  "  '  The  Lily  '  probably  con- 
tains the  fullest  history  extant  of  the  rise  and  progress 
of  the  woman's  movement  for  the  first  six  years  imme- 
diately succeeding  its  inauguration." 

Mrs.  R.  C.  HALLOWELL  has  made  a  grand  success  in 
editing  "  The  New  Century,"  the  woman's  paper  pub- 
lished at  the  centennial.  "  The  Woman's  Advocate," 
published  in  Dayton,  O.,  in  1870,  was  edited  in  part  by 
MIRIAM  M.  COLE  and  MARGARET  V.  LONGLEY,  and 
was  a  valuable  adjunct  to  the  cause.  Of  course  it  is 
remembered  that  MARGARET  FULLER  was  one  of  the 
editors  of  "  The  Dial."  LAURA  C.  HOLLOTVAY  should 
be  mentioned  among  able  reporters  and  journalists. 
In  1870  CARRIE  YOUNG  commenced  the  publication  of 


684  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

a  monthly  magazine  in  San  Francisco,  -which  is  called 
"  The  Pacific  Journal."  "  The  Balance  "  was  started 
in  Chicago  in  1871  by  MARIA  HAWLEY  and  MARY 
TOMLIN  as  proprietors  and  publishers,  and  a  corps  of 
editors,  consisting  of  themselves  and  Mrs.  E.  MACITWAY 
and  Dr.  ODELIA  BLINN.  This  list  is  incomplete,  doubt- 
less, as  other  women,  EMILY  HUNTINGTON  MILLER 
and  others,  have  been  connected  with  periodicals,  and 
scarcely  a  juvenile  one,  especially,  succeeds  without  the 
editorial  aid  of  cultured  women.  Mrs.  BELLA  FRENCH 
was  on  the  editorial  staff  of  "  The  St.  Paul  Pioneer  " 
in  1871.  Mrs.  A.  J.  DUNIWAY  is  the  able  editor  of  an 
Oregon  paper,  doing  valiant  service  for  woman's  cause. 
The  future  will  see  more  instead  of  fewer  women 
journalists,  and  they  will  be  acknowledged  yet  more 
widely  as  a  power  for  good  in  the  land. 


EMILY   HUNTINGTON   MILLER. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

WOMEN    PRINTEKS. 

The  Misses  Franklin  —  Sarah  Goddard  —  Mary  Katherine  Goddard  — 
Penelope  Russell  — Augusta  A.  Miner  —  Anna  E.  Briggs  —  Harriet 
G.  Miller  —  The  Turner  Sisters  —  The  Bazin  Sisters,  and  others. 

"  A  blessing  cm  the  printer's  art ! 
Books  are  the  mentors  of  the  heart." 

MKS.  HALE. 

"  Oh  that  my  words  were  now  written !  oh  that  they  were  printed  hi  a  book  1  "— 
Job  xix.  23. 

IT  is  no  wonder  that  "  the  art  preservative  of  all 
arts  "  has  been  termed  a  "  divine  art,"  since  it  pre- 
serves for  us  so  many  high  thoughts  and  blessed  words, 
and  is  the  means  of  spreading  abroad  so  much  light  and 
joy.  "  Even  the  Christian  religion,  with  its  divine 
power  unaided  by  the  press,  was  but  a  light  under  a 
bushel;  and  though  ever  guarded  from  extinction  by  the 
hand  that  placed  it  upon  earth,  it  gave  but  a  taper 

687 


688  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTTJEY. 

flame  to  the  world  it  was  sent  to  illumine  and  bless." 
But,  when  the  art  of  printing  was  discovered,  the  world 
began  to  be  rilled  with  light ;  and  woman  has  done  her 
part  bravely  in  the  good  work.  Even  among  the  early 
printers  and  editors  in  America,  were  women. 

"  'ANNE  FRANKLIN.' —  The  first  newspaper  printed  in 
Rhode  Island  was  at  Newport,  in  1732.  James  Frank- 
lin, a  brother  of  the  doctor,  was  the  publisher.  He 
died  soon  after,  and  his  widow  continued  the  business 
several  years.  She  was  printer  to  the  colony,  supplied 
blanks  to  the  public  offices,  published  pamphlets,  &c. 
*  The  Newport  Mercury,'  which  is  now  regularly 
issued,  grew  out  of  this  printing  office  in  1T58,  and  is 
the  oldest  paper  in  the  country.  In  1745  Mrs.  Franklin 
printed  for  the  government  an  edition  of  the  laws,  con- 
taining three  hundred  and  forty  pages.  She  was  aided 
in  her  office  by  .her  two  daughters.  They  were  correct 
and  quick  compositors,  and  very  sensible  women.  A 
servant  of  the  house  usually  worked  at  the  press. 
George  Dexter,  an  early  settler  of  Providence,  usually 
worked  for  her  when  she  had  a  large  job,  or  an  almanac 
to  get  out." 

Anne  Franklin  did  most  of  her  work  before  our  first 
century  began,  but  the  influence  she  exerted  was  not 
lost.  From  the  admirable  address  of  James  F.  Bab- 
cock,  formerly  editor  of  "  The  New  Haven  Palladium," 
at  the  editorial  convention  held  in  Middletown  on  the 
centennial  aniversary  of  the  origin  of  the  newspaper 
press  in  Connecticut,  some  interesting  facts  are  culled. 
He  says,  "  From  the  time  of  the  first  American  news- 
paper, in  1704,  to  the  appearance  of  the  first  in  Con- 
necticut in  1788,  there  were  seventy-eight  newspapers 
in  the  colonies,  one-half  of  which  were  suspended 
before  1775.  Of  the  whole  number  printed,  sixteen 


WOMEN   PRINTERS.  689 

were  conducted  by  ladies,  fourteen  of  whom  were  the 
firm  and  undaunted  champions  of  liberty  and  equal 
rights.  .  .  .  Mrs.  Franklin  was  not  only  a  printer  of 
laws,  newspapers,  and  almanacs,  but  of  calicoes  and 
linens,  which  she  advertised  she  would  stamp  in  figures 
in  *  very  lively  and  desirable  colors,  and  without  the 
offensive  smell  which  commonly  attends  linen  printed 
here.'  The  fashionable  ladies  of  1745,  must  have  felt 
under  very  great  obligations  to  Mrs.  Franklin  for  giving 
them  so  choice  an  article  for  their  wardrobe. 

Mrs.  Sarah  Goddard  was  a  printer  at  Providence,  in 
1767,  —  a  lady  of  good  education,  and  managed  her 
newspaper,  "The  Gazette,"  with  ability.  She  after- 
wards connected  herself  in  business  with  John  Carter 
under  the  firm  of  Sarah  Goddard  &  Co.  She  died  in 
Philadelphia  in  1770.  "  The  Boston  News  Letter,"  the 
first  newspaper  in  America,  was  conducted  during  some 
part  of  the  Revolutionary  War  by  Mrs.  Margaret  Dra- 
per. When  Boston  was  besieged  by  the  English,  all 
the  newspapers  but  her's  were  suspended.  She  left  the 
country  with  her  friends,  and  the  British  government 
settled  a  pension  upon  her.  Mrs.  CORNELIA  BBAD- 
FORD,  widow  of  Andrew  Bradford,  who  died  in  1772, 
was  for  a  number  of  years  in  business  in  Philadelphia, 
and,  what  is  quite  remarkable,  retired  with  a  com- 
petency. Mrs.  JANE  AITKEN,  also  of  Philadelphia, 
succeeded  her  father  in  1802,  and  gained  considerable 
reputation  from  the  productions  of  her  press.  Mrs. 
ZERGER  carried  on  her  husband's  business  after  his 
death,  and  conducted  "  The  New  York  Journal "  with 
great  ability  until  1748.  Her  husband  was  a  fiery- 
tempered  man,  and  was  frequently  in  prison  for  libol 
prosecutions.  She  is  represented  as  having  possessed  a 
lamb-like  docility. 


690  WOMEN   OP  THE   CENTURY. 

Mrs.  MARY  HOLT  lost  her  husband,  and  succeeded  to 
his  place  as  publisher  of  "  The  New  Ycrk  Journal," 
soon  after  which  she  was  re-appointed  State  printer. 
That  journal,  it  is  remarked,  did  powerful  service  in  the 
republican  cause  in  the  Revolution  of  1776. 

ANNE  CATHERINE  GREENE,  in  1767,  succeeded  her 
husband  in  publishing  "  The  Maryland  Gazette "  at 
Annapolis,  the  first  paper  printed  in  that  colony.  She 
executed  the  Colony  printing.  Mrs.  MARY  KATHERINE 
GODDARD  was  for  a  long  period  in  charge  of  "  The 
Maryland  Journal."  That  paper  was  established  by  her 
brother,  William  Goddard  of  Rhode  Island.  He  was 
several  times  mobbed  for  his  writings,  and  finally  went 
back  to  Providence.  His  sister  Mary  took  up  his  pen, 
and  conducted  the  paper  for  eight  years.  She  was  also 
for  a  period,  or  until  1784,  the  postmaster  of  the  city. 
She  was  as  unsparing  in  her  writings  as  her  brother ; 
but  the  fact  that  she  wore  calico  instead  of  broadcloth 
saved  her  from  the  violence  to  which  her  brother 
was  subjected.  She  was  the  daughter-in-law  of  Sarah 
Goddard,  heretofore  spoken  of  as  the  firm  of  Sarah 
Goddard  &  Co. 

CLEMENTINE  BIRD  succeeded  her  husband  in  "  The 
Virginia  Gazette,"  and  died  in  1775. 

Mrs.  ELIZABETH  TEVIOTHEE  published  "  The  Charles- 
ton Gazette, "  in  South  Carolina,  in  1773.  Pier 
daughter-in-law,  a  widow,  carried  on  the  paper  after 
the  war.  She  was  appointed  printer  to  the  State,  and 
held  the  office  until  1792.  MARY  CROUCH,  widow  of 
Charles  Crouch,  born  in  Rhode  Island,  assisted  her  hus- 
band in  the  publication  of  a  paper  in  Charleston,  in 
opposition  to  the  Stamp  Act ;  and  after  his  death  she 
continued  it  till  1780,  when  she  took  her  printing  ma- 
terials to  Salem,  Mass.,  and  established  a  paper  there, 


WOMEN   PRINTERS.  691 

and  conducted  it  with  much  success.  PENELOPE  RUS- 
SELL, a  very  enterprising  woman,  succeeded  her  hus- 
band in  publishing  and  editing  "  The  Censor,"  at  Berlin, 
in  1771.  She  used  to  set  up  her  own  type,  and  put 
together  the  editorial  "  leaders  "  from  the  type-case, 
without  the  previous  aid  of  paper,  pen,  and  ink.  Ah, 
there  were  women  in  those  days !  "  The  Hartford 
Courant,"  long  one  of  the  best  conducted  papers  in 
New  England,  was  for  two  years  published  by  Mrs. 
Watson.  Her  husband  died  in  1777.  She  was  taken 
from  her  editorial  chair  in  1779  by  a  new  husband. 

So  much  for  the  printer  women  of  the  olden  time, 
according  to  Mr.  Babcock. 

It  is  believed  that  women  of  later  times  are  not  in- 
ferior. A  few  examples  will  here  be  given. 

Mrs.  A.  J.  DTJNIWAY  of  Portland,  Oregon,  is  not 
only  an  editor,  but  a  practical  printer,  as  is  also  Mrs. 
EMMA  MOLLOY  of  Elkhart,  Ind.  Mrs.  Duniway  first 
earned  a  sewing-machine,  then,  by  sewing,  earned  press 
and  type.  "  In  the  mean  while  she  reared  a  house  full 
of  boys  to  print  her  paper,  at  the  head  of  which  she  is 
now  a  power  in  Oregon.  Lucy  Stone  says  of  her, '  Mrs. 
Duniway  makes  an  excellent  paper,  which  we  always 
look  for  and  value  among  our  exchanges.  The  fresh- 
ness of  the  great  North-west  is  in  it,  and  it  always 
respects  itself.'  It  is  entitled  "  The  New  North- West." 

"  Battle  Creek,  Mich.,  can  boast  of  two  damsels,  the 
Misses  ELISABETH  and  LYDIA  TAYLOR,  who  have  for 
five  years  been  employed  as  compositors  in  the  office  of 
the  "  Journal,"  of  that  place.  They  have  made  from 
eight  to  twenty  dollars  per  week,  have  supported  a 
widowed  mother,  have  kept  house  handsomely,  have 
bought  a  piano,  have  taken  music-lessons,  have  given 
one  hundred  dollars  to  the  Baptist  Church,  and  have 
saved  twelve  hundred  dollars." 


692  WOMEN   OF   THE   CENTURY. 

"  THE  Paterson  (1ST. J.)  Guardian  "  speaks  thus  of 
"  victorious  female  printers  "  :  — 

"  A  Cincinnati  press  states,  that,  three  years  ago,  a 
poor  orphan  girl  applied,  and  was  admitted  to  set  type 
for  that  paper.  She  worked  two  years,  during  which 
time  she  earned,  besides  her  board,  about  two  hundred 
dollars  ;  and,  availing  herself  of  the  facilities  which 
the  printing-office  afforded,  acquired  a  good  education. 
She  is  now  an  associate  editor  of  a  popular  paper,  and 
is  engaged  to  be  married  to  one  of  the  smartest  lawj^ers 
in  Ohio.  Such  a  girl  is  bound  to  shine,  and  eclipse 
tens  of  thousands  who  are  educated  in  the  lap  of 
luxury,  and  taught  all  the  '  accomplishments '  of  the 
boarding-school,  Such  a  wife  will  be  a  jewel  to  her 
husband,  an  ornament  to  society,  and  an  honor  to  her 
sex  and  her  country. 

"  We  can  tell  a  truthful  tale  of  the  sort  which  will 
beat  that  easily.  *  The  Paterson  Guardian '  office  is 
the  first  office  in  New  Jersey  where  females  were  suc- 
cessfully employed  at  type-setting.  One  young  lady, 
who  was  our  forewoman  for  years,  had  entire  charge  of 
the  paper,  was  paid  during  her  stay  with  us  over  five 
thousand  dollars,  as  nearly  as  we  can  get  at  the  amount 
from  our  books.  She  also  had  entire  charge  of  the 
columns,  selections,  &c.,  and  was  judge  of  all  matter 
to  be  inserted  during  three  years  and  six  months  at  a 
time,  when  the  regular  editor  was  absent;  and  we 
never  knew  her  to  err  in  any  respect.  We  cannot  say, 
with  the  above,  that  she  is  engaged  to  a  promising 
young  man :  she  is  married  to  one  of  the  finest  young 
men  in  the  city,  and  one  doing  a  first-class  business. 
Another  young  lady  left  our  office  to  take  a  position 
in  New  York ;  and  she  is  now  what  is  called  '  make-up 


WOMEN   PRINTERS.  693 

in  an  office  in  New  York,  at  twenty-five  dollars  pei 
week.  Some  time  ago  two  sisters  left  the  office  to  take 
positions  on  a  New  York  paper,  to  whom  we  had  paid 
nearly  seven  thousand  dollars  for  type-setting.  Of 
course  such  hands  are  the  best ;  but  we  have  very  good 
hands  always  in  the  office.  We  have  very  generally, 
however,  found  this  to  be  the  rule  in  regard  to  female 
compositors.  They  do  not  care  to  earn  beyond  a  cer- 
tain amount;  and,  when  that  figure  is  reached,  they 
seem  to  have  all  the  money  they  require,  and  are 
perfectly  careless  of  any  thing  extra.  They  may  not 
advance  so  far  in  rapid  type-setting ;  but  it  is  a  fact, 
that  generally  girls  will  get  ahead  in  three  weeks  to 
where  a  boy  will  take  six  to  attain.  In  an  office  they 
are  more  agreeable,  less  disposed  to  go  from  place  to 
place,  and,  as  a  general  thing,  are  more  reliable  than 
male  compositors.  To  be  sure,  they  must  have  their 
own ;  but  they  seldom  want  more  than  is  right.  Our 
entire  newspaper  is  the  work  of  young  ladies,  and 
every  type  is  set  by  them,  advertisements  and  all ;  and 
the  '  make-up '  is  a  young  girl ;  and  we  have  no  fore- 
man in  the  newspaper  rooms,  a  young  lady  acting  in 
that  capacity." 

While  editor  of  the  "  Ladies'  Repository,"  the  writer 
had  ample  opportunity  to  make  the  acquaintance  of 
the  young  women  who  were  the  compositors  (one  of 
whom,  MARGARET  WELLINGTON,  was  competent  lo  act 
as  foreman  in  emergency,  and  did  so),  and  found  them 
successful  as  printers,  and  amiable  and  high-toned  as 
women.  Some  of  them  were  well-educated,  some 
even  accomplished ;  some  ha''  genius  for  writing ; 
and  it  is  a  well-known  fact,  that  one  of  the  first 
writers  for  that  magazine,  in  years  gone  by  (Mrs. 
CHARLOTTE  JARAULD)  was  a  compositor  there  when 


694  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

she  first  wrote  for  the  public.  The  Bazin  sisters, 
"TILLIE"  and  "  HATTIE,"  the  Turner  sisters,  ELIZA 
and  EMILY,  ANNA  E.  BRIGGS,  OLIVE  ALLEN,  MARY 
ALLEN,  and  others  who  were  printers  in  Boston,  will 
always  be  regarded  with  the  respect  and  affection  they 
richly  deserve.  The  number  of  women  now  engaged 
in  type-setting  is  very  large.  Miss  CALLIE  WHITE  (in 
1871)  was  elected  by  the  Jackson  (Miss.)  Typographical 
Union  as  a  delegate  to  represent  their  association  in  the 
International  Union,  held  in  Baltimore.  "  The  Woman's 
Journal "  of  April  13,  1872,  says,  "  Mrs.  AUGUSTA  A. 
MILLER  is  a  compositor  at  South  Bend,  Ind.  She 
learned  to  set  type  in  her  father's  office  in  Angola, 
when  only  thirteen  years  of  age ;  and  a  proof  taken 
the  other  day  of  nine  thousand  ems,  having  but  two 
typographical  errors,  proves  that  '  the  coming  woman  ' 
may  be  a  compositor  without  stepping  out  of  her 
sphere.'  " 

"Mrs.  HARRIET  GRANGER  MILLER,  job-printer  in 
Springfield  Mass.,  was  awarded  the  only  premium 
given  in  New  England  (so  far  as  we  know)  for  job- 
printing  by  the  judges  of  the  Centennial  Exposition, 
where  she  exhibited  specimens  of  her  work. 

"  Mrs.  Miller  is  a  native  of  Westminster,  Ver.,  where 
she  lived  until  her  marriage  with  Mr.  Joseph  Miller,  who, 
was  a  native  of  Springfield,  and  established  a  new  job- 
printing  office  there  in  1858,  and  successfully  carried 
on  the  business  some  ten  years,  when  he  began  to 
develop  a  nervous  disease  of  the  brain,  that,  after  five 
years  of  untold  horrors  to  himself  and  friends,  resulted 
fatally  and  tragically  in  the  death  of  a  suicide.  Up  to 
this  time  Mrs.  Miller  had  no  more  knowledge  of  job- 
printing  than  any  one  who  has  occasionally  visited  a 
printing-office ;  being  in  exceedingly  delicate  health 


WOMEN  PRIKTEES.  695 

from  a  serious  and  settled  affection  of  the  lungs  and 
throat,  and  unable  to  speak  aloud  without  great  exer- 
tion. She  had  been  ordered  by  her  physician  to  leave 
Springfield  immediately  if  she  wished  to  save  her  life, 
and  had  with  their  only  child  been  visiting  friends  in 
the  country  for  three  weeks,  when,  on  the  morning  of 
the  day  she  was  expecting  to  see  her  husband,  a  tele- 
gram was  brought  her  announcing  his  sudden  death. 

"  Four  days  later  found  her  in  the  printing-office,  try- 
ing to  solve  the  problem  of  how  to  keep  the  '  wolf ' 
outside  the  door,  with  an  insolvent  estate,  a  broken- 
down  business,  a  heavily  mortgaged  house,  and  neither 
health  nor  capital  to  work  with ;  nothing  better  sug- 
gesting itself,  she  determined  to  take  up  the  business 
her  husband  had  left,  assuming  the  indebtedness :  so, 
keeping  the  boy  already  there  to  do  the  lesser  work, 
she  secured  the  services  of  an  old  printer  who  had  long 
ago  retired  from  a  printer's  life,  but  with  true  friendli- 
ness consenting  to  come  to  her  aid  until  she  could  do 
better.  In  a  little  more  than  a  year  she  succeeded  in 
mastering  every  department  of  the  work  done  in  her 
office,  and  dispensing  with  the  services  of  her  kind 
friend  and  helper.  She  has  continued  to  do  the  work 
ever  since,  with  the  aid  of  only  one  workman,  who  has 
not  finished  learning  the  business,  occasionally  hiring 
an  extra  hand  for  press-work  when  there  has  been 
sufficient  business  to  make  it  advisable.  The  work  is 
all  done  without  steam,  on  two  Gordon  presses,  an 
eighth,  and  half  medium,  and  a  Franklin  hand-press. 
During  the  annual  vacations  of  her  workman,  Mrs. 
Miller  has  performed  not  only  her  usual  duties,  but  also 
the  entire  routine,  from  opening  the  office  in  the  morn- 
ing, to  washing  the  rollers  and  presses  and  closing  the 
office  at  night.  The  Massasoit  House  daily  '  Bill  of 


696  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURA. 

Fare '  has  been  printed  in  this  office  every  day  (except 
Sundays,  that  being  done  Saturday)  for  eighteen  years. 

"  For  three  years  Mrs  Miller  has  been  struggling  under 
the  disadvantages  of  ill  health,  hard  times,  small  capi- 
tal, and  close  competition ;  but  she  has  persevered  in 
her  endeavors  to  carry  on  the  business,  and  earn  an 
honorable  livelihood,  and  is  still  cheerfully  laboring  on, 
hoping  for  better  times  and  brighter  prospects." 

The  list  might  be  extended,  but  must  close  here, 
with  a  benediction  on  all  those  who  use  the  composing- 
stick  as  a  sceptre  of  power. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  close  with  the  statement  that 
"it  was  a  lady  who  originated  the  use  of  printing  in 
Japan.  The  Empress  Shiyantoku,  good  soul,  in  pursu- 
ance of  a  vow,  directed  in  the  year  764  that  a  million  of 
small  wooden  pagodas  should  be  distributed  among  the 
Buddhist  temples  and  monasteries  of  the  empire,  and 
that  each  should  contain  a  dharani  out  of  the  Buddhist 
Vimala  nirbhassa  Sutra.  The  Sanskrit  text  of  the  dha- 
rani  was  to  be  printed  in  the  Chinese  character  on  slips 
of  paper  about  eighteen  inches  long  by  two  inches  wide, 
so  as  to  admit  their  being  easily  rolled  up  and  inserted 
into  the  hollow  interiors  of  the  pagodas.  Many  of  these 
slips  are  still  preserved  in  the  monastery  of  Hofu-riu-zhi, 
in  Yamato,  and  fac-similes  of  some  of  them  are  to  be 
found  in  Japanese  antiquarian  works.  Connoisseurs  are 
divided  in  opinion  as  to  whether  the  plates  from  which 
these  impressions  were  taken  were  of  metal  or  of  wood 
but  the  majority  hold  that  they  were  of  metal." 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


WOMEN    LIBRAKIANS. 

Lorenza  Haynes  —  Elizabeth  C.  Todd  —  Maria  Mitchell  —  Sarah  J. 
Barnard,  &c. 

"  Come  let  me  make  a  sunny  realm  around  thee 

Of  thought  and  beauty !    Here  are  books  and  flowers, 
With  spells  to  loose  the  fetters  which  hath  bound  thee, 
The  ravelled  evil  of  this  world's  feverish  hours." 

MRS.  HEMANI. 

"  Of  making  many  books  there  is  no  end."  —  ECCLES.  xii.  12. 

HAVING  read  with  great  interest  the  newspaper 
accounts  of  the  librarians'  conference  in  Philadel- 
phia in  October  of  the  centennial  year,  the  writer  was 
pleased  by  the  fact  that  some  ladies  were  there,  but 
regretted  that  no  special  mention  was  made  of  the  capa- 
bility of  some  women  for  that  position,  which  requires 
a  love  for  books,  some  scholarship,  a  desire  for  order 
and  executive  capacity,  with  no  little  patience  and  dis- 
cernment of  character.  The  Philadelphia  paper,  after 


698  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

speaking  of  the  men  librarians  gathered  in  the  confer- 
ence, said,  — 

"  There  was  also  a  fair  representation  of  the  lady 
librarians  from  different  sections  of  the  country  pres- 
ent. The  following  registered  their  names :  Miss  S. 
LOUISA  RICH,  Hastings  Library,  Missouri ;  Miss  ELIZ- 
ABETH E.  RULE  and  Miss  LOUISA  MATTHEWS,  Lynn, 
Mass. ;  Miss  E.  F.  WHITNEY,  Concord,  Mass. ;  Mrs. 
CORNELIA  OLMSTED,  Wadsworth  Library,  Geneseo, 
N.Y.,  and  Miss  FANNY  J.  McCuLLOCH,  of  the  Birchard 
Library,  Fremont,  Ohio. 

Mr.  John  William  Wallace,  in  his  excellent  address 
of  welcome,  thus  referred  to  the  librarian  as  he  or  she 
should  ever  be,  and  as  some  librarians  (like  John  L. 
Sibley,  and  Frederic  Vinton  and  others,  who  have  helped 
the  writer  when  in  search  for  information,  are) :  — 

"  Gentlemen,  a  good  librarian  has  ever  been  a  valua- 
ble minister  to  letters.  He  has  always  stood  between 
the  world  of  authors  and  the  world  of  readers,  intro- 
ducing the  habitants  of  one  sphere  to  the  habitants  of 
the  other ;  interpreting  often  obscurities  where  the 
fault  is  with  authors,  imparting  often  intelligence  where 
the  fault  is  with  readers.  This,  his  ancient  title,  he 
still  possesses.  But  in  this  day  and  for  the  future  he 
is  called  to  new  offices  and  to  higher  distinctions.  His 
profession  belongs  to  the  sciences.  He  requires  some 
of  the  finest  faculties  of  mind.  He  takes  his  rank 
with  philosophers." 

All  this  may  be  said  of  some  women  librarians ; 
especially  if  they  are  in  some  special  sense  beside 
votaries  of  science,  as  was  MAEIA  MITCHELL,  the 
astronomer  who  was  librarian  of  the  Nantucket  Athe- 
naeum for  twenty  years.  No  one  could  be  more  faithful 
than  she  was.  Her  place  has  ever  since  been  occupied 


•    WOMEN  LIBRARIANS.  699 

by  a  woman,  SARAH  J.  BARNARD,  who  has  served  so 
acceptably  as  to  fill  the  place  for  many  years. 

Mrs.  PAROLA  HASKELL  was  appointed  State  Libra- 
rian in  Tennessee  in  1872.  In  the  town  of  Waltham, 
Mass.,  Miss  LORENZA  HAYNES,  now  a  preacher,  was 
for  many  years  in  charge  of  the  town  library,  and  per- 
formed her  duties  with  fidelity  and  success.  She  was 
one  of  the  most  efficient  librarians,  and  performed  an 
incredible  amount  of  work,  for  which  the  salary  was 
hardly  a  fitting  recompense.  In  New  Haven  ELIZA- 
BETH C.  TODD  has  for  years  served  faithfully  as  libra- 
rian of  the  Young  Men's  Institute,  now  located  in  the 
old  State  House.  In  the  town  of  Brewster,  Mass.,  and 
in  many  other  New  England  towns,  women  have 
served  with  entire  success.  Miss  MATTEE  H.  APPLE- 
TON  (now  Mrs.  Brown)  was  an  efficient  librarian  in 
Reading,  Mass.,  for  several  years.  Having  prepared 
catalogues  for  three  sabbath  schools  and  for  several 
private  libraries,  the  writer  is  ready  to  acknowledge 
effort  required  in  the  larger  libraries  of  towns,  and 
bespeaks  for  every  librarian  an  adequate  salary  and 
sufficient  help  in  the  details  of  book-delivery.  Libra- 
ries are  great  educators,  and  should  be  established  in 
ever}'  town  and  city  ;  and  a  fair  share  of  them  should 
be  put  into  the  hands  of  women  librarians,  to  whom 
research  is  delightful,  and  with  whom  there  is  no  such 
word  as  "  fail." 


CHAPTER    XXV. 


WOMEN  AGRICULTURISTS. 

M.  Louise  Thomas  —  The  Sisters    of    Dutchess  County  —  Lucilla 
Tracy  —  Miss  Morgan  —  Mary  Wilson,  &c. 

"  How  blest  the  farmer's  simple  life! 

How  pure  the  joy  it  yields ! 
Far  from  the  world's  tempestuous  strife, 
Free  'mid  the  scented  fields! " 

C.  W.  EVEREST. 

"  Plant  gardens,  and  eat  the  fruit  of  them."  —  JER.  xxix.  5. 

"TTTHY  should  not  women  be  farmers,  or  ship- 
V  V  captains,  if  they  will  ?  That  they  can  be  both 
has  been  proved  already.  In  1872  mention  was  made 
by  the  press  of  two  sisters,  LAURA  and  ELECTA  FULLER, 
who  live  on  the  east  shore  of  the  Canandaigua  Lake, 
who  are  now  over  sixty  years  old,  own  farms,  and  since 
early  womanhood  have  cultivated  them  with  their  own 
hands.  It  is  not  always  necessary  that  women  should  do 
this.  They  may  work  by  proxy,  as  men  who  own  farms 

700 


WOMEN   AGRICULTURISTS.  701 

do,  and  still  be  regarded  as  agriculturists.     Rev.  Robert 
Colly er  states  the  following :  — 

A  WOMAN   FARMER. 

"  Nine  years  ago  there  was  an  old  man  living  in 
Dutchess  County,  N.Y.,  who  owned  a  farm  of  about 
three  hundred  acres,  and  had  three  children,  a  son  and 
two  daughters.  He  was  an  old  man  then,  and  past 
work,  and  his  son  managed  the  farm.  Then  the  old 
man  made  a  proposition.  He  could  not  live  long,  and 
wanted  to  divide  the  property  in  this  manner :  he 
would  divide  it  into  two  halves ;  give  the  son  one  half, 
and  the  other  half  to  the  two  daughters.  Then  the 
son  made  a  proposition.  The  property  was  worth  from 
eleven  thousand  to  twelve  thousand  dollars ;  and  he  said 
he  would  sell  his  share  to  his  sisters  for  five  thousand 
dollars,  on  condition  that  they  would  take  care  of  the 
old  man  as  long  as  he  lived.  One  of  these  sisters, 
a  small,  delicate  person,  acts  for  the  other,  who  is 
something  of  an  invalid.  They  agreed  to  the  propo- 
sition; and  then  the  first  thing  this  small  person  did 
when  she  got  hold  of  the  land,  and  found  herself  in  debt 
five  thousand  dollars,  was  to  run  in  debt  four  thousand 
dollars  more,  with  which  she  bought  new  stock  and 
implements,  put  her  buildings  and  fences  into  good 
repair,  and  got  every  thing  as  a  woman  likes  to  see  it. 
That  was  nine  years  ago.  Her  father  lived  five  years, 
and  got  to  be  so  helpless  that  she  had  to  wash  his  face 
for  him  and  shave  him,  and  wait  on  him  hand  and  foot. 
She  fell  sick  herself  on  the  strain,  and  could  attend  to 
nothing  for  some  months.  But  now  that  whole  nine- 
thousand-dollar  debt  is  paid;  the  farm  is  in  better 
condition  than  it  was  when  she  took  it ;  and  she  has  got 
so  forehanded  that  she  is  able  to  go  round  visiting  her 


702  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTURY. 

friends,  and  was  sitting  among  you  in  this  church  the 
first  Sunday  after  vacation ;  and  I  suppose  you  would 
not  know  her  if  she  were  here  to-night  from  the  lady 
who  seldom  goes  outside  her  own  parlor.  She  has  had 
the  whole  oversight  of  the  place,  sometimes  hiring 
a  foreman  to  work  with  the  men  when  she  needed  one, 
but  never  giving  up  her  own  plan  of  ruling  and  guiding 
the  land.  One  day,  when  she  was  not  far  on  with  her 
work,  her  brother  came  to  see  how  things  were  going,  — 
not  indifferent,  I  suppose,  to  his  share  of  the  property 
still  invested.  He  saw  some  stone  wall  that  was  just 
done,  and  said,  '  You  must  not  build  a  wall  like 
that ;  the  land  will  not  afford  it.'  — '  What  do  you 
think  that  wall  cost  ? '  she  said.  The  brother  named 
the  price  it  would  have  cost  him.  The  sister  brought 
out  her  book,  showed  him  every  item,  and  it  was  not 
quite  half  as  much  as  he  had  said  it  cost.  But  then  he 
found,  that  while  the  woman  did  not  touch  the  wall 
with  the  tip  of  her  finger,  she  inspired  and  directed  the 
men,  so  that  they  built  as  they  built  at  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem  in  the  days  of  Ezra  the  scribe ;  and  so  the 
wall  was  finished.  All  this  she  has  done,  and  has  raised 
a  poor  lad  beside,  taught  him  farming,  started  him  on 
a  farm  of  his  own  in  Missouri,  and  is  now  looking  out 
for  another." 

"Among  the  self-reliant  women  in  Greeley,  Col.,  is 
Mrs.  WILBER,  a  slight  person,  and  formerly  a  school- 
teacher, who  this  season  (1873)  has  rigged  up  a  gang- 
plough  and  sowed  eighteen  acres  of  wheat." 

Mrs.  ELLEN  S.  TTTPPER  is  well  known  as  a  successful 
bee-culturist.  A  newspaper  account  of  this  lady  is  as 
follows :  — 


WOMEN   AGRICULTURISTS.  703 

MBS.    TUPPEB'S   HISTOBY. 

"  No  woman  in  Iowa  has  borne  a  higher  reputation  for 
probity  of  character  than  Mrs.  Tupper.  She  was  born 
at  Providence,  R.I.,  in  1822,  and  was  the  daughter  of 
Noah  Smith,  for  fifteen  years  First  Assistant  Secretary 
of  the  United  States  Senate.  Her  mother  was  a  sis- 
ter of  Henry  Wheaton,  the  well  known  author  of  a 
treatise  on  International  Law.  Mrs.  Tupper  was  given 
all  the  educational  advantages  which  wealth  could  pur- 
chase, and  at  an  early  age  won  local  distinction  as  a 
magazine  essayist.  In  1843  she  married  Allen  Tupper, 
a  wealthy  lumber  merchant  at  Houlton,  Me.  Soon 
after  his  health  failed,  and  his  business  and  wealth 
passed  away.  In  1851  the  family  went  West,  and 
located  in  Washington  County.  Up  to  this  time  Mrs. 
Tupper  did  not  know  what  it  was  to  labor  for  even 
a  day.  Necessity  stared  them  in  the  face.  Several 
small  children  must  be  cared  for  as  well  as  an  invalid 
husband.  She  engaged  to  teach  a  school ;  and  taking 
her  babe  with  her  on  horseback,  daily  she  went  to  her 
school,  and  attended  to  her  household  affairs  when  out 
of  school.  She  soon  brought  the  school  to  her  own 
house,  and  thus  supported  her  family  until  1857,  when 
she  turned  her  attention  to  bee-culture.  In  1872  she 
removed  to  Des  Moines,  where  she  has  since  resided. 
In  the  mean  time  her  business  has  extended  to  eveiy 
State  in  the  Union.  Her  labors  have  been  severe  and 
onerous.  Her  correspondence  was  sufficient  to  absorb 
most  of  her  time  ;  yet  she  personally  packed  and  at- 
tended to  all  her  shipments,  besides  editing  one  or  two 
oee-journals,  and  writing  for  several  others,  and  fre- 
quently going  abroad  to  lecture. 

"  She  was  also  one  of  the  regular  lecturers  at  the 


704  WOMEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

Agricultural  College.  She  has  reared  three  daughters 
to  womanhood,  one  of  whom  is  the  wife  of  a  lawyer, 
and  is  the  able  and  eloquent  pastor  of  a  church  in 
Colorado ;  another  is  a  teacher  in  Marshalltown  ;  while 
another,  in  Des  Moines,  is  engaged  in  raising  and  breed- 
ing fancy  poultry,  and  is  well  known  throughout  the 
State.  She  has  one  son,  about  fourteen  years  old,  and 
a  younger  daughter.  Her  husband  is  now  teaching 
school  at  State  Centre.  By  her  own  hard  labor  she  has 
kept  hei  family  together,  and  educated  her  children, 
fitting  them  for  any  position  in  society. 

"  Two  years  ago  she  broke  down  in  both  body  and 
mind  from  overwork,  and  passed  through  a  long  time  of 
sickness  and  nervous  prostration."  After  this  sickness  her 
mind  appeared  to  be» afTected,  leading  to  embarrassments 
in  business,  so  that  at  present  she  is  not  active  in  her 
chosen  sphere ;  but  the  cloud  will  doubtless  pass  away, 
and  in  the  clearer  light  of  restored  health  she  will 
resume  her  efforts,  and  be  successful  as  before.  All 
true  women  sympathize  with  her  daughters  in  this 
afHiction. 

"  Mrs.  MAJRY  WILSON  owns  a  farm  of  a  hundred  and 
eighty  acres  near  Reed's  Corner,  Ontario  County,  N.Y. ; 
and,  although  seventy-two  years  old,  has  gathered  all 
her  grain  (hi  1871)  without  help.  She  was  found  by 
an  interviewer  pitching  off  a  load  of  wheat,  and  a  day 
or  two  ago  had  been  mowing.  She  swings  a  scythe 
and  handles  a  pitchfork  with  the  ease  of  a  man  in  his 
prime." 

Lastly,  and  chiefly,  the  name  of  M.  LOUISE  THOMAS 
is  given  as  one  who  has  demonstrated  the  fact  that 
women  can  be  successful ;  and  the  writer  ventures  tc 


WOMEN   AGKICULTU1UST8.  705 

insert  extracts  from  a  cheerful,  characteristic  letter  from 
this  noble  woman :  — 

"  TACONY,  PHILADKLPHIA,  Dec.  31,  1875. 

"  My  dear  Friend,  —  'The  old  year  lies  a  dying,'  and 
the  guns  are  firing  over  it,  and  the  bells  are  hanging 
all  ready  to  '  ring  out  the  old,  ring  in  the  new  ; '  and 
all  the  world  stands  ready  to  cry,  The  king  is  dead, 
live  the  king,'  as  I  write  to  you.  Yours  of  the  29th  is 
received ;  and,  without  the  least  affectation,  I  should 
be  glad  to  give  you  the  particulars  of  my  life  if  I  could 
think  of  one  worthy  of  a  place  in  your  book,  or  in  any 
book.  But  I  have  never  done  any  thing,  nor  been 
any  thing,  but  what  ought  to  have  been  and  done 
much  better  by  reason  of  my  blessings  and  opportu- 
nities ;  and  I  dare  not  myself  write  either,  lest  I  should 
either  underrate  the  one,  or  overrate  the  other. 

"  I  think  my  ruling  traits  are  industry'  and  a  love  of 
systematic  arrangement  in  all  work,  study,  or  recrea- 
tion, and  a  close  sympathy  for  all  animal  and  vegetable 
nature,  as  well  as  for  humanity.  Botany  was  among 
my  earliest  studies  ;  and  long  before  I  could  read  I 
loved  the  honey-bees  that  have  since  become  my  most 
familiar  friends :  and  yet  I  never  lived  a  week  at  a 
time  in  the  country,  until  a  dozen  years  ago,  when,  by 
reason  of  the  feeble  health  of  my  husband,  we  were 
obliged  to  leave  the  city,  in  the  hope  of  prolonging  his 
life. 

"  We  have  a  farm  of  twenty  acres.  All  that  is  done 
upon  it  is  altogether  and  entirely  under  my  direction 
and  my  personal  superintendence.  There  is  no  mystery 
and  no  hardship  in  it.  I  have  never  found  any  hin- 
drances that  a  man  might  not  have  found,  and  I  think 
not  quite  so  many  ;  for  the  whole  round  of  farm-life  is 
a  pleasure  to  me. 


706  WOMEN  OF  TUB   CENTURY. 

"  The  are  no  sex  prejudices  in  the  natural  forces  of 
the  universe.  The  earth  yields  her  increase  just  the 
same  to  woman  as  to  man  if  the  conditions  of  cultiva- 
tion are  the  same  ;  and  the  grain  or  produce  raised  by 
one  commands  just  the  same  price  in  the  market  as 
that  raised  by  another,  according  to  quality.  In  any 
thing  I  have  ever  bought  or  sold  or  hired,  I  have 
never  felt  that  my  neighbors  have  any  greater  or  any 
less  advantage  than  I  have  had. 

"  My  little  herd  of  pure-blooded  Alderney  cattle  are 
equal  to  any  in  the  country  in  beauty  and  milking 
qualities,  and  my  butter  brings  the  top  price  in  the 
Philadelphia  market.  Last  year  I  made  over  seven 
hundred  pounds  from  four  cows,  besides  using  consid- 
erable cream  for  ice-cream. 

"  I  have  over  a  hundred  pure  Brahma  fowls,  Guinea 
fowls,  turkeys,  ducks,  &c.  ;  and  in  my  garden  all  the 
choice  small  fruits.  A  young  pear  orchard,  planted 
with  my  own  hands,  is  now  in  full  bearing,  and  must 
increase  in  profit  for  many  years  to  come. 

"I  have  brought  up  thirteen  children,  —  boys  and 
girls,  —  and  have  tried  to  teach  them  habits  of  useful- 
ness and  honesty.  Among  them  were  Germans,  Scotch, 
Negroes,  Indians,  Americans. 

"  Five  of  them  I  took  from  the  Colored  Orphan  Asy- 
lum, 143  A  Street,  New  York,  at  different  times.  It 
is  one  of  the  best  institutions  in  the  country. 

"  I  have  been  enabled  to  Qarry  on  the  entire  duties 
pertaining  to  the  publication  of  tracts,  by  the  expe- 
rience gained  in  early  life,  my  father,  Hon.  S.  N. 
Palmer,  having  been  editor  and  publisher  of  a  paper ; 
so  that  types  were  among  my  earliest  toys  and  play- 
things, and  the  reading  of  proof,  and  the  details  of  a 
printing-office,  familiar  things  to  me  at  a  very  early 


WOMEN  AGRICULTURISTS.  707 

age.  You  know  the  amount  of  work  in  the  tract  pub- 
lication. I  have  attended  to  the  stereotyping  and  the 
printing,  bought  the  paper,  read  the  proofs,  packed, 
directed,  and  mailed  them  all,  with  occasional  clerical 
assistance,  and  have  kept  the  books. 

"  I  have  never,  in  a  single  instance,  been  made  to 
feel  that  my  sex  was  either  a  hindrance  or  a  help  in 
this  work.  .  .  . 

"  The  lady  I  told  you  about  in  the  sugar  camp  is 
the  wife  of  Rev.  L.  F.  Porter,  Conneautville,  Penn., 
one  of  our  ministers. 

"  I  think  her  name  is  Charlotte,  but  I  am  not  sure. 
I  am  sure  she  would  be  glad  to  receive  a  letter  from 
you.  For  a  number  of  years  they  lived  near  Brooklyn, 
Susquehauna  Co.,  Penn.  She  has  never  been  regularly 
ordained  (by  mail)  ;  but  she  has  preached  with  great 
power  and  acceptance  for  many  years  in  the  north- 
eastern part  of  the  State. 

"  The  story  of  the  sugar-camp  was  told  to  me  by 
Obadiah  Bailey,  an  intelligent  and  leading  member  of 
the  church  at  Brooklyn. 

"  The  services  of  Mrs.  Porter  were  desired  at  a 
funeral  a  few  miles  away,  and  Brother  Bailey  went  to 
her  house  to  carry  the  message. 

"  She  was  not  at  home ;  and  he  was  told,  that,  to  find 
her,  he  would  have  to  go  out  into  the  sugar-camp, 
where  she  was  engaged  in  gathering  the  maple  sap, 
and  making  it  into  sugar. 

"It  was  night  then,  but  his  errand  admitted  no 
delay.  So  he  drove  as  far  as  he  could  follow  the 
wagon-path  ;  then,  as  it  was  quite  dark,  he  hitched  his 
horse  to  a  tree,  and  walked  on  as  best  he  could  by  the 
starlight. 

"  Presently   he   heard,   on    the    still,   frosty    air,   a 


708  WOMEN   OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

woman's  voice  singing  a  hymn  of  praise  to  God ;  and 
very  soon  the  camp-fire  came  in  sight.  Standing  still, 
he  says  he  watched  the  scene  for  some  minutes,  listen- 
ing to  the  hymn  in  this  strange  and  lonely  place,  the 
snow  covering  the  ground,  the  stars  over  head,  the 
fire  burning,  and  Mrs.  Porter  singing  as  she  passed 
from  place  to  place,  in  the  work  in  which  she  was 
engaged,  with  no  human  being  near. 

"  She  and  her  husband  had  hired  the  camp,  and  they 
took  turns  in  the  duty  of  making  the  sugar,  —  the  one 
generally  sleeping  in  a  leaf-covered  hut  close  by,  while 
the  other  kept  watch  of  the  kettles  containing  the  sap 
and  sugar.  Upon  this  occasion  Mr.  Porter  had  not 
yet  appeared,  to  take  his  midnight  watch,  and  she  was 
alone. 

"  The  handsome  sum  realized  by  the  sale  of  their 
sugar  in  the  spring  proved  the  success  of  their  under- 
taking. 

"  I  have  not  done  justice  to  the  story,  but  I  have 
given  you  the  outline.  I  wish  I  could  give  you  a  better 
idea  of  her  character.  She  is  a  strong,  good  woman,  — 
often  supplies  her  husband's  pulpit,  and  is  liked  quite 
as  well  as  he ;  and  he  is  above  the  average  in  point  of 
eloquence. 

"  And  now  about  your  book.  "  When  will  it  be 
ready  ?  Have  you  the  name  of  Lydia  R.  Bailey,  the 
woman  printer  of  whom  I  told  at  Syracuse  ?  She  was 
for  many  years  the  city  printer  of  Philadelphia.  Her 
niece  was  my  aunt  by  marriage. 

"  Have  you  Harriet  Livermore,  —  one  of  the  singulai 
women  of  the  last  century,  and  the  early  part  of  this  ? 
"  Yours  truly, 

"M.  L.  THOMAS.' 


WOMEN   AGRICTJLTTJBISTS.  709 

Mrs.  Thomas  has  been  requested  by  a  letter  in 
"  The  Woman's  Journal,"  signed  by  Phebe  A.  Hana- 
ford,  Ellen  E.  Miles,  Ada  C.  Bowles,  Caroline  A. 
Soule,  Elizabeth  K.  Churchill,  and  Lucretia  Mott1,  to 
prepare  a  volume  in  regard  to  farming,  which  may  help 
other  women  to  the  peace  and  independence  of  a  suc- 
cessful agriculturist ;  and  she  has  promised  to  do  so  if 
leisure  is  afforded.  May  the  publication  occur  soon, 
that  many  women  may  thereby  be  blessed  ! 

1  The  initials  of  five  names  make  the  word  "  Peace,"  and  are  rightly 
followed  by  the  honored  name  of  the  preacher,  Lucretia  Mott.  "  A  good 
omen  for  the  book,"  says  "  The  Woman's  Journal," 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

WOMEN   HISTORIANS. 

Hannah    Adams  —  C?  Alice    Baker  —  Martha    S.    Lande  —  Clarissa 
Butler,  and  others. 

"  The  classic  days,  those  mothers  of  romance, 
That  roused  a  "nation  for  a  woman's  glance, 
The  age  of  mystery  with  its  hoarded  power, 
That  girt  the  tyrant  in  his  storied  tower, 
Have  passed  and  faded  like  a  dream  of  youth, 
And  riper  eras  ask  for  history's  truth."  O.  W.  HOLMES. 

"  Bring  the  hook  of  the  record  of  trie  Chronicles."  —  ESTHER  vi.  1. 

SINCE  the  days  of  HANNAH  ADAMS,  it  has  never 
been  denied,  in  this  country,  that  women  can  be 
historians.  Her  "  History  of  the  Jews  "  proved  that  a 
woman  can  be  interested  in  the  details  of  historic 
events,  and  portray  them  well.  EMMA  WILLARD  and 
her  sister  PHELPS  also  taught,  to  their  pupils  at  least, 
the  same  lesson.  Mrs.  MARTHA  J.  LAMB  is  teaching  it 
to  this  generation  through  her  "History  of  New  York." 

710 


WOMEN   HISTOEIANS.  711 

The  press  tells  us  that  "  Mrs.  M.  J.  LAMB,  an  intelli- 
gent lady,  and  a  ready  and  practised  writer,  who  has 
earned  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  woman  admitted 
to  the  active  membership  of  the  New  York  Historical 
Society,  has  been  at  work  for  the  past  sixteen  years 
preparing  a  history  of  the  Empire  City,  derived  not 
only  from  the  standard  sources,  but  also  from  family 
archives  of  correspondence,  memoranda,  and  papers  of 
various  kinds  to  which  she  has  been  granted  access, 
among  those  whose  fathers  and  mothers  were  closely 
identified  with  the  early  days  of  the  city,  particularly 
during  the  Revolutionary  period,  and  the  earlier  part  of 
this  century.  This  book  tells  the  whole  story,  from  the 
time  of  Henry  Hudson  and  the  *  Half-Moon '  down  to 
the  present  day." l 

Mrs.  Martha  Joanna  Lamb's  birthplace  was  Plain- 
field,  Mass.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Alvin  and  Lucinda 
Vinton  Nash,  and  the  granddaughter  of  Jacob  and  Jo- 
anna Reade  Nash.  She  was  named  for  her  grandmother, 
Joanna  Reade,  who  descended  from  the'Reades  of  North- 
umberland and  Marcia  in  England.  Mrs.  Lamb's  early 
years  were  notable  for  her  love  of  mathematics  and  of 
composition.  She  had  written  numerous  articles  and 
poems  before  she  was  ten  years  old  ;  her  first  published 
article  appeared  about  the  age  of  thirteen,  in  the  "  Hamp- 
shire Gazette."  She  wrote  occasional  fugitive  articles 
and  poems,  but  it  was  not  until  1866  that  she  devoted 
herself  exclusively  to  literary  production.  She  has  since 
that  time  written,  not  only  her  famous  "  History  of  the 
City  of  New  York,"  in  two  imperial  volumes  of  sixteen 
hundred  pages,  but  "The  Homes  of  America,"  two 
novels,  —  "  Spicy  "  and  the  "  Broken  Pitcher,"  —  ten 

1  Woman's  Journal,  Jnly  6,  1872. 


712  WOMEN  OP  THE  CENTURY. 

books  for  children,  a  small  book  of  poems,  numerous  no- 
table illustrated  articles  ;  as,  for  instance,  "  The  Coast 
Survey,"  "The  State  Department,"  "The  Life-Saving 
Service,"  etc.,  for  "  Harper's  Magazine,"  and  has  con- 
tributed articles  and  editorials  to  various  publications  on 
almost  every  topic  under  the  sun. 

She  is  now  engaged  in  preparing  a  supplementary  vol- 
ume to  her  great  history,  to  be  entitled  "New  York 
Biography,"  speaking  of  prominent  people  and  events  in 
that  city  during  the  past  fifty  years.  Mrs.  Lamb  is  also 
preparing  a  volume  on  the  "  Historic  Manors  of  New 
York,"  which  will  be  of  great  interest.  These  books  are 
original  and  graphic  in  style,  as  charming  as  Prescott 
and  Macaulay,  and  yet  Mrs.  Lamb  imitates  no  one,  but 
gives  accurate  history  in  glowing  pictures,  and  shows  that 
woman  can  be  a  successful  historian. 

Here  is  a  paragraph  of  special  interest  to  women, 
from  Mrs.  Lamb's  article  on  Newark,  N. J.,  published  in 
"  Harper's,"  alluding  to  the  fact  of  women  voting  in 
the  state  of  New  Jersey  early  in  the  century.  She 
says :  — 

"  Widows  and  single  women  were  entitled  by  the 
laws  of  New  Jersey  to  vote  in  all  elections.  In  1807 
the  Legislature  authorized  an  election  to  settle  the 
location  of  the  Essex  County  court-house.  Newark 
was  intensely  excited,  for  Elizabeth  had  been  for  some 
time  growing  arrogant.  Public  meetings  were  held  in 
all  parts  of  the  county,  and  the  air  had  a  bitter  taste. 
The  children  in  the  schools  were  employed  for  days  in 
writing  tickets  for  the  contest.  Personal  safety  was  in 
danger  whenever  a  good  word  chanced  to  be  spoken  for 
Elizabeth.  Two  Newark  gentlemen  drove  to  Elizabeth 
in  a  gig  on  private  business,  and  were  received  with  a 
bucket  of  tar.  The  day  of  the  election  was  fair. 


WOMEN   HISTORIANS.  713 

Every  horse,  carriage,  and  cart  in  the  place  was  in 
requisition.  Every  man  and  every  woman  old  enough 
and  big  enough  (age  was  a  minor  consideration),  or 
who  expected  to  grow  old  enough  and  big  enough,  to 
vote  was  promptly  at  the  polls.  Vehicles  were  going 
constantly  to  and  from  the  different  polls,  and  every 
person  voted  at  every  poll.  Married  women  voted  as 
well  as  single  women.  Three  sisters,  the  youngest  aged 
fifteen,  changed  their  dresses  and  their  names,  and 
voted  six  times  each.  Two  of  them  are  still  living, 
and  reside  in  Newark.  Men  and  boys  put  on  women's 
clothes,  in  order  to  duplicate  their  votes.  Never  was 
there  more  reckless  proceeding.  Newark  w.on  the 
court-house,  and  in  the  evening  illuminated  herself,  even 
to  the  tops  of  her  steeples ;  cannons  thundered  and 
bellowed,  and  all  the  tar  and  apple  barrels  which  could 
be  gathered  hi  for  miles  around  were  consumed  by 
fire." 

Mrs.  ABBY  SAGE  RICHARDSON,  who  has  been  a  suc- 
cessful writer  in  various  departments  of  literature,  has 
recently  turned  her  attention  to  history.  She  is  the 
author  of  a  volume  entitled  "The  History  of  our 
Country,"  published  by  Hurd  &  Hough  ton,  and  has 
also  delivered  a  series  of  lectures  in  Boston  on  histori- 
cal subjects,  which  were  received  with  favor  by  critical 
audiences,  and  were  highly  commended  by  the  press. 

For  lack  of  further  space,  let  it  be  only  added  here, 
that  C.  ALICE  BAKER  and  CLARISSA  BUTLER  should 
be  numbered  with  historians.  PHEBE  A.  HANAFORD  has 
written  several  slight  historical  sketches  of  churches, 
one  of  which  has  been  published  in  pamphlet  form,  the 
others  in  newspapers.  There  is  no  reason  why  women 
should  not  engage  in  historical  research,  and  publish 
the  result  of  their  labors.  Accuracy  of  statement  and 


714  WCXMEN   OF  THE  CENTT7ET. 

attention  to  details,  which  may  present  graphic  pictures, 
may  be  expected  of  them,  as  of  their  brothers,  and 
America  may  yet  have  woman  rivals  for  her  Prescott, 
her  Motley  and  her  Bancroft. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

WOMEN   TRAVELLERS. 

Whalers'  Wives  —  Mary  D.  Wallis  —  Lucinda  H.  Stone  —  Julia  Ward 
Howe,  &c. 


'  And  waiting,  I  will  trust  the  love 
That  guards  me  through  the  dark 
And  though  my  feet  oft  press  the  thorns 


That  guards  me  through  the  darkest  hours; 
And  though  my  feet  oft  press  the  thorns 
That  lie  concealed  'neatli  sweetest  flowers, 


I  know  His  hand  will  surely  guide 
My  footsteps  safe  beyond  the  tide." 

ELLEN  E.  MILES. 

"In  journeyings  often,  in  perils  of  waters,  ...  in  perils  by  the  heathen,  in 
perils  in  the  wilderness,  in  perils  iu  the  sea."  —  2  COR.  xi.  26. 

MANY  a  woman  as  well  as  many  a  man  has  felt  the 
force  of  the  prophet  Samuel's  words  when  he 
said  to  Saul,  "  The  Lord  sent  thee  on  a  journey,"  as 
they  have  looked  back  upon  their  lives,  and  perceived 
how,  sometimes  by  ways  they  could  not  have  foreseen, 
they  have  been  led  to  travel  far  from  home  into  foreign 
lands,  and  how  the  hand  of  God  sustained  them  in  all 
their  wanderings  by  sea  and  land. 

Among  the  women  who  have  travelled  far  by  sea  and 
land,  are  the  wives  of  those  brave  men  who  have  gone 
forth  from  Nantucket  and  other  seaports  in  search  of 

715 


716  WOMEN    OF   THE   CEXTUKY. 

the  mighty  whale.  One  of  them  was  brought  to  mind 
by  a  recent  paragraph  in  "  The  Nantucket  Mirror: "  — 

"  The  late  Mr.  Henry  Clark,  whose  remains  were 
brought  to  this  place  last  week  for  interment,  was  born 
at  the  island  of  Tahiti.  His  mother,  who  still  survives, 
was  we  believe,  the  first  Nantucket  lady  who  accom- 
panied her  husband  on  a  whaling  voyage  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  The  voyage  was  performed  in  the  ship  '  Envoy,' 
then  belonging  to  Providence,  R.I." 

Were  the  names  of  the  women  who  have  been  brave 
enough  to  dare  the  arctic  cold  and  the  dangers  of  the 
deep,  for  the  sake  of  the  companionship  of  their  hus- 
bands, and  possibly  with  a  desire  to  see  foreign  lands, 
to  be  given  here,  the  list  would  be  very  long,  and  would 
present  the  names  of  some  of  the  best  women  earth 
has  ever  known.  Pitcairn's  Island  holds  the  dear  re- 
mains of  one  such  woman,  Mrs.  ELIZA  PALMER,  whose 
memory  is  blessed.  Women  at  the  present  day  are 
travellers  in  our  own  and  foreign  lands  almost  as  much 
as  men  are ;  but  formerly  only  those  women  whose  com- 
panions were  seafaring  men,  or  men  whose  official 
duties  called  them  abroad,  were  wont  to  cross  the 
ocean,  or  travel  far  from  their  native  land. 

It  is  said  that  "  Mrs.  JANE  A.  EAMES  of  Concord, 
N.H.,  has  presented  to  the  high  school  of  that  city  a  large 
and  valuable  collection  of  minerals  and  curiosities  gath- 
ered by  her  in  her  various  travels  in  Europe,  Asia, 
Africa,  and  America.  Among  these  is  a  complete  set  of 
Austrian  minerals  as  well  as  of  Swiss,  the  first  bought 
of  the  state  geologist  of  Austria  ;  the  second  got  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Mont  Blanc."  "  The  New  York  Tri- 
bune" thus  describes,  the  victory  of  a  woman  over 
shipwreck  and  yellow  fever  combined.  "  The  brig 
•  Abbie  Clifford  '  of  Stockton,  Me.,  from  Pernambuco, 


WOMEN  TRAVELLERS.  717 

March  27,  1872,  with  a  cargo  of  sugar,  is  now  at 
quarantine.  On  the  second  day  out  a  seaman  was 
taken  sick  with  yellow  fever,  and  died  April  1.  Another 
of  the  crew  died  April  9,  and  the  steward  had  died 
before  leaving  port.  Capt.  Clifford,  the  officers,  and 
the  majority  of  the  crew,  were  prostrated  by  the  fever ; 
and,  after  the  death  of  the  first  mate,  Mrs.  Clifford,  the 
wife  of  the  captain,  took  sole  command,  navigated  the 
vessel,  and  brought  her  safely  to  New  York.  Above 
Cape  Hatteras  the  brig  encountered  a  N.E.  gale  of  five 
days'  duration,  which  split  the  sails  into  ribbons,  and 
carried  several  spars  overboard;  but  the  woman  cap- 
tain was  fully  equal  to  the  emergency.  Mrs.  Clifford 
has  been  at  sea  several  years  with  her  husband,  and 
has  made  many  of  the  calculations  during  that  time. 
She  has  a  thorough  mathematical  education,  and  be- 
lieves herself  competent  to  sail  any  craft  afloat.  She  is 
of  slender  build,  about  twenty-five  years  old,  and  is 
unassuming  and  ladylike  in  manner." 

MARY  D.  WALLIS  accompanied  her  sea-captain  hus- 
band to  the  Feegee  Islands,  and  wrote  an  interesting 
narrative  of  her  sojourn  there,  entitled  "  Life  in 
Feegee."1  JULIA  WARD  HOWE  has  travelled  exten- 
sively in  the  Old  World;  and  her  books  telling  of 
classic  scenes,  or  of  unfamiliar,  lovely  spots  in  the 
tropic  islands  of  the  sea,  are  full  of  thrilling  interest. 

Mrs.  LUCINDA  H.  STONE  has  been  travelling  in 
Europe  for  several  years,  with  pupils,  and  the  world 
may  yet  hear  from  this  true  friend  of  woman.  Our 
libraries  are  enriched  with  the  writings  of  Mrs.  Whit- 
ney, Mrs.  Sowe,  Mrs.  Stowe,  Miss  Alcott,  and  other 

i  She  went  afterward  on  another  voyage,  and  visited  New  Caledonia. 
Her  account  of  that  voyage  has  been  edited,  since  her  death,  by  the 
writer,  and  is  now  ready  for  the  press. 


718  WOMEN  OF  THE   CENTUBY. 

women  who  Lave  travelled,  and  thus  gained  the  knowl- 
edge they  impart  to  others. 

Song  and  stories  come  from  the  journeyings  of  these 
women ;  and  since  they  travel  not  in  vain,  but  enrich 
our  libraries  on  their  return,  we  can  but  wish  their 
travels  may  never  be  less.  The  writer  closes  this  brief 
mention  of  these  women  who  go  abroad,  with  praise  for 
their  courage  and  enterprise,  and  the  expression  of  her 
own  longing  desire  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  some 
of  them  to  the  beauties  and  sublimities  of  Alpine 
scenery,  and  the  glories  of  classic  lands. 

' '  I  cannot  throw  my  staff  aside, 
Or  wholly  quell  the  hope  divine, 
That  one  delight  awaits  me  yet, 
A  pilgrimage  to  Palestine." 

Mention  among  artists  should  have  been  made  of 
Miss  LATHBUBY  of  Orange,  N.  J.,  whose  genius  is  shown 
in  exquisite  drawings,  at  once  beautiful  and  sugges- 
tive ;  and  more  should  have  been  said  of  MARGABET 
FOLEY.  "A  life-size  medallion,  comprising  an  admirable 
likeness  of  William  Cullen  Bryant,  carved  by  Miss  Mar- 
garet Foley,  an  American  sculptor  now  in  Rome,  and 
enclosed  in  a  massive  frame  under  glass,  will  hence- 
forth be  one  of  the  most  striking  ornaments  of  the 
walls  of  Prof.  Tyler's  recitation  rooms  at  Amherst 
College."  Miss  Foley  has  achieved  great  success  as  a 
sculptor  since  she  went  abroad. 

In  the  chapter  on  Women  Missionaries  should  have 
been  mentioned  Miss  MAKIA  A.  WEST,  whose  "Ro- 
mance of  Missions  "  has  been  published  in  New  York. 

We  desire  to  preserve  here  the  testimony  of  two 
men  whose  opinions  are  of  value.  First,  in  regard  to 
the  co-education  of  the  sexes,  Prof.  Hosmer  of  Anti- 


WOMEN  TRAVELLERS.  719 

ocli  College,  in  "  Old  and  New,"  sets  forth  his  views 
upon  the  subject.  He  says,  — 

"  I  am  sure  that  young  men  and  women  study  better 
for  being  brought  together  in  recitation :  there  is  an 
honorable  emulation,  a  natural  incentive  in  each  to  do 
the  best.  Neither  would  seem  to  the  other  dull  or 
incapable;  the  young  women  would  show  that  they 
can  do  well,  even  in  philosophy  and  mathematics ;  and 
the  young  men  must  look  to  their  laurels.  Then  in 
regard  to  the  spirit  and  tone  of  life  :  I  am  sure  it  is 
better  for  the  presence  of  both  sexes ;  roughness  is 
repressed,  and  thought  and  feeling  are  purer,  gentler, 
and  more  humane.  No  doubt  there  must  be  vigilant 
supervision,  and  limits  to  familiarity ;  some  indiscretion 
must  be  expected  and  provided  for ;  the  sober  maturi- 
ties of  autumn  are  not  to  be  looked  for  amidst  the  buds 
and  flowers  of  spring ;  but  with  a  careful  supervision 
we  have  had  very  few  wilful  departures  from  pro- 
priety. Through  these  results  I  have  come  to  strong 
faitli  in  the  co-education  of  the  sexes.  Indeed,  Avhat 
infidelity  to  doubt  it !  God  has  placed  sons  and  daugh- 
ters in  the  same  homes  to  be  brought  up ;  and  men  and 
women  are  made  to  live  together  in  the  world.  Who 
may  presume  to  say,  that  from  sixteen  to  twenty-five 
years  of  age,  the  most  formative  period  of  human  life, 
the  young  men  and  women  must  be  separated,  become 
monks  and  nuns  in  their  school-time,  and  then  revive  as 
best  they  can  their  thwarted,  smothered  sympathies  ?  " 

Edward  Everett  Hale  says  of  the  education  of 
women :  "  I  have  for  many  years  seen  the  work  of  the 
young  women  at  Antioch  College,  who  are  trained 
actually  in  the  same  classes  with  the  yc-ung  men  who 
study  there.  I  have  little  doubt  that  any  of  the  gradu- 
ates of  that  college  would  pass,  with  distinction,  the 


720  WOMEN   OF  THE   CENTURY. 

advanced  Cambridge  examination  for  women.  This  is 
not  because  Antioch  College  offers  more  studies,  or  a 
wider  '  curriculum '  as  they  call  it,  than  our  high 
schools.  It  is  because  it  does  what  it  pretends  to  do 
thoroughly.  The  young  woman  is  turned  back  on  her 
course  at  the  end  of  a  year  if  she  cannot  pass  her 
annual  examinations,  just  as  a  Cambridge  sophomore  or 
junior  is.  I  do  not  believe,  that,  in  practice,  the  well- 
educated  woman  needs  to  go  through  the  same  studies, 
precisely,  with  a  well-educated  man.  But  I  do  believe 
that  what  she  learns  she  needs  to  know  thoroughly.  It 
is  of  no  great  consequence  whether  a  girl  has  studied 
this  thing  or  that  thing,  that  thing  or  this  thing.  But, 
whether  she  study  this  thing  or  that  thing,  it  is  impor- 
tant that  she  should  study  to  the  bottom,  and  learn  it 
thoroughly  well,  so  far  as  she  learns  it  at  all.  And,  if 
I  had  a  young  friend  who  was  preparing  herself  to  be 
a  teacher  of  boys,  in  the  things  boys  learn  in  going  to 
college,  I  should  send  her  to  Antioch  College  to  pre- 
pare herself.  The  merit  of  the  Cambridge  plan  will  be 
that  people  will,  sooner  or  later,  find  the  advantage  of 
thoroughness.  It  need  not  compel  the  women  to  study 
things  they  do  not  need  or  do  not  want  to  learn.  But 
gradually  it  will  train  the  schools  to  teach  well  what 
they  teach  at  all." 

"  The  Boston  Journal "  says  of  women  students,  — 
"  The  understood  but  not  always  discussed  question 
with  respect  to  advances  in  female  education  has  refer- 
ence to  their  influence  upon  the  delicacy  of  the  sex. 
It  is  felt  that  if  women  should  become  great  scholars, 
able  thinkers,  and  well-informed  persons  generally,  and 
yet  in  the  process  should  lose  their  crowning  grace,  — 
*  that  delicacy  which  is  to  woman  what  color  is  to  the 
flower,  that  nameless  something  which  poets  strive  to 


WOMEN  TRAVELLERS.  721 

describe  but  cannot,  that  something  which  attracts  us 
to  woman,'  then  the  advantages  would  be  attained  at 
too  great  a  cost.  We  are  borrowing  from  the  language 
of  Pres.  Angell  of  Michigan  University,  who  gives  his 
own  conclusive  experience  of  the  last  three  years  in 
the  co-education  of  the  sexes. 

" '  If  we  were  to  make  masculine  women  or  blue- 
stockings,' he  says,  '  then,  for  one,  let  me  have  the  priv- 
ilege of  resigning  my  position.'  But  he  declares  with 
the  utmost  plainness  and  emphasis,  knowing  the  great 
concern  on  this  point  which  is  in  many  minds,  and  was 
once  in  his  own,  that  he  sees  '  no  possible  tendency  in 
this  direction.'  His  testimony  will  be  credited  with 
the  weight  it  deserves.  And  yet  we  find  in  our  last 
foreign  files  a  remarkable  order  emanating  from  the 
Russian  Government,  which  seems  to  militate  against 
Pres.  Angell's  conclusion.  For  some  time  it  seems 
women  students  from  Russia  have  been  allowed  to 
resort  to  the  University  of  Zurich,  the  number  at 
present  being  one  hundred  and  eight.  '  Very  unfavora- 
ble reports  have  reached  the  Government  relative  to 
the  conduct  of  those  young  women,'  says  the  docu- 
ment in  question.  They  have  become  ardent  politi- 
cians, belonging  to  secret  societies  and  adopting  the 
most  advanced  democratic  sentiments.  Some  of  them 
pass  back  and  forth  in  Russia,  taking  with  them  incen- 
diary letters  and  proclamations.  Others,  says  the  offi- 
cial document,  allow  themselves  to  be  deluded  by 
communistic  free-love  theories,  and  act  in  utter  forget 
fulness  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  morality  and 
decorum ;  and  yet  these  women  must  sooner  or  later 
come  back  to  Russia  as  wives,  mothers,  and  teachers ; 
to  prevent  or  to  limit  which  evil,  it  is  ordered  that 
such  Russian  women  as  shall  attend  the  University  of 


722  WOALEN  OF  THE  CENTUBY. 

Zurich,  after  the  first  of  January,  1874,  shall  not  be 
admitted,  on  their  return  to  Russia,  to  any  examination, 
educational  establishment,  or  appointment  of  any  kind, 
under  the  control  of  the  Government. 

"  We  think  the  American  reader  will  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  seeing  what  the  Russian  difficulty  is  in  this 
case.  These  quick-minded  girls  get  their  eyes  open  to 
the  enormities  of  Russian  despotism,  and  their  generous 
impulses  are  stirred  in  opposition.  As  to  the  charges 
of  immorality,  we  do  not  believe  a  word  of  them. 
There  never  was  an  opponent  of  slavery  or  of  tyranny 
who  did  "not  have  to  bear  such  odium;  and  ever  since 
the  days  of  the  early  Christians,  woman  has  had  her  full 
share  of  the  injustice.  The  real  fault  in  this  matter  is 
at  the  other  end  of  the  scale.  So  long  as  a  repressive 
despotism  hangs  over  Russia,  all  education  will  develop 
dangerous  tendencies ;  and  it  is  to  the  honor  of  the 
female  sex,  that  it  is  particularly  responsive  to  the 
generous  impulses  of  culture.  Give  the  freedom  of 
America,  and  the  highest  cultivation  of  woman  will 
only  add  to  her  native  refinement,  delicacy,  and  pro- 
priety." To  all  which  the  writer  adds  a  reverent 
"  Amen ;  "  hoping  great  things  for  and  from  the  women 
of  the  second  century. 


INDEX. 


Abbott,  Einma,  571. 

Abbott,  Lucy  M.,  552. 

Adams,  Abigail,  46,  72,  195. 

Adams,  Hannah,  195. 

Adams,  Louisa  Catherine,  78. 

Adams,  Martha  A.,  428. 

Agassiz,  Elizabeth  C.,  2C9. 

Aguilar,  Grace,  25. 

Aiken,  Sarah  I.,  596. 

Aitken,  Jane,  089. 

Alcott,  Louisa  M.,  227,  717. 

Alcott,  May,  290. 

Alford,  Joanna,  627. 

Allen,  Elizabeth  Akers,  233. 

Allen,  E.  E.,  520. 

Allen,  Mary,  094. 

Allen,  Olive,  094. 

Allen,  Phebe,  185. 

Allertou,  May,  34. 

Allison,  Emma,  626. 

Ames,  Mary  Clemmer,  668. 

Ames,  Sarah  F.,  300. 

Augell,  Caroline  E.,  460. 

Anthony,  Susan  B.,  155.  330,  346,  670. 

Appl-iton,  Anna  E.,  ±.'3,  248. 

Appletou,  Mittie  H.,  699. 

Arthur,  Ella  L.,  107. 

Aspasia,  25. 

Austin,  Harriet  N.,  671. 

Austin,  Minnie,  517. 

Avery,  Dr.,  551. 

Babcock,  CHra  Maria,  470. 
Bache,  S  vrali,  54,  121. 
Badger,  Mrs.,  275. 
Bailey,  Margaret  L.,  245,  682. 
Baker.  Bet;ey,  627. 
Baker,  C.  Alice,  713. 
Baker,  Sarah  J.,  517. 
Baldwin,  Emma  L.,  082. 
Ball,  M.  V.,  413. 
Barlow,  Arabella  Griffith,  184, 
Barkalovv,  Helena,  047. 
Barker,  Mrs.,  184. 
Barnard,  Caroline,  615. 
Barnard,  Caroline  L.,  100. 
Barnard,  Sarah  J.,  699. 
Barney,  Eliza,  243. 
Bartlett,  Ella  Elizabeth,  431. 
Bartlett,  Jennie  E.,  2SC. 
Barton,  Clara,  159,  104, 183. 


Barton,  Kate,  632. 

Bazin,  Hattie,  694. 

Bazin,  Tillie,  094. 

Beal,  Mary  S.,  518. 

Beecher,  Catherine  H.,  504. 

Beekman,  Cornelia,  122. 

Bennett,  Alice,  555. 

Benson,  Elizabeth  M.,  524. 

Benton,  Mrs.,  323,  435. 

Belts,  Abby,  587. 

Betts,  Helen  M.,  552,  553. 

Bickerdyke,  "Mother,"  184. 

Bingham,  Anne,  120. 

Bingham,  Henrietta  A.,  671. 

Bird,  Clementine,  090. 

Blackmar,  Miss,  185. 

Blackwell,  Antoinette  Brown,  227,  268, 422. 

Blackwell,  Elizabeth,  532,  554. 

Blackwell,  Emily,  534,  554. 

Blake,  Lillie  Deverenx,  357. 

Bland,  M.  Co-a,  671. 

Eliim,  Odelia,  084. 

Blodgett,  C.  A.,  374. 

Bloomer,  Amelia,  083. 

Bodley,  Rachel  L.,  540. 

Boise,"  Misses,  528. 

Boltou,  Sarah  K.,  403. 

Bonney,  Sarah  E.,  262. 

Boon,  Emma,  555. 

Booth,  Almida,  514. 

Booth,  Mary  L.,  066. 

Borg,  Selma,  227. 

Botta,  Anna  Charlotte,  245. 

Bowles,  Ada  C.,  322,  431. 

Brackett,  Anna  C.,  518. 

Bradford,  Cornelia,  689. 

Bradley,  Amy  M.,  184. 

Bradwell,  Myra  B.,  043,  045,  050. 

Bratton,  M'Tthi,  01. 

Brayton,  Mary  Clark,  398. 

Breckenridgp,  Margaret  Elizabeth,  184. 

Bridges,  Fidelia,  279. 

Brigg?,  Anna  E.,  094. 

Bristol,  Augusta  Cooper,  473. 

Bromall,  Anna  E.,  537. 

Bronson,  Laura  M.,  573. 

Brown,  Antoinette,  343. 

Brown,  Deborah  G.,  015. 

Brown,  Olympia,  329,  347,  425. 

Brown,  Ruth,  599. 

Browne,  Marie  A.,  227. 


724 


INDEX. 


Brownell,  Katy,  176. 
Bruce,  Elizabeth  M.,  431,  671. 
Buckel,  C.  A.,  552. 
Bullock,  Mrs.,  627. 
Burleigh,  Celia,  470. 
Burnham,  Mary  M.,  524. 
Burr,  Frances  Ellen,  671. 
Burt,  Lizzie,  649. 
Burt,  Mary  T.,  407. 
Butler,  Clarissa,  518,  713. 
Butts,  Amy  B.,  517. 
Butts,  Mrs.,  668. 

Caldwell,  Mira,  598. 

Callanan,  Mrs.,  322. 

Canfield,  S.  A.  Martha,  185. 

Capen,  Bessie  T..  524. 

Capeii,  Mary  E.,  185. 

Carpenter,  Caroline  A.,  513. 

Cartwright,  Ellen  M.,  576. 

Carver,  Jane,  555. 

Cary,  Alice,  214. 

Cary,  Annie  Louisa,  571. 

Cary,  Phebe,  214. 

Chandler,  Elizabeth  M.,  243. 

Chandler,  Lucinda  M.,  413. 

Channing,  Susan  Burdick,  509. 

Chapin,  Augusta  J.,  426. 

Chapin,  FJla,  648. 

Chapin,  Mary  E.,  529. 

Chapman,  Maria  Weston,  155. 

Chase,  Ann,  57. 

Chase,  Elizabeth  B.,  161. 

Chase,  Mary  Maria,  241,  263. 

Cheatham,  Adelicia,  128. 

Cheney,  Eduah  D.,  227,  320,  4G9. 

Cheney,  Harriet  V.,  218. 

Chesbro,  Frances  M.,  238. 

Cheves,  Charlotte,  288. 

Child,  Lydia  Maria,  148,  164,  243,  332,  676. 

Chilton,  May,  34. 

Churchill,  Elizabeth  K.,  320. 

Clark,  Lucia  F.,  524. 

Clark,  Mary  S.,  324. 

Clarke,  Mrs.,  682. 

Clarke,  Sarah,  282. 

Clay,  Elizabeth,  04. 

Clement,  Annie  W.,  607. 

Clement,  Clara  Erskine,  272. 

Clemmer,  Mary,  600. 

Cleveland,  Emeline  Horton,  551. 

Cleves,  Margaret,  555. 

Clifford,  Mrs.,  717. 

Cobb,  Eunice  Hale,  428. 

Coffin,  Mary  Starbuck,  242. 

Coffin,  Mrs.  C.  F.,  162. 

Coffin,  Narcissa,  413,  417. 

Coggeshall,  Elizabeth,  421. 

Colby,  Sarah  A.,  541. 

Cole,  Miriam  M.,  325,  683. 

Coleman,  Mary  F.,  587. 

Colfax,  Harriet  R.,  185. 

Collins,  Jennie  C.,  159. 

Colt,  Mrs.,  163. 

Comb,  Helen,  648. 

Comstock,  Elizabeth,  413,  421. 

Comstock,  Sarah  Davis,  490. 

Conant,  Helen  C.,  227. 

Conant,  Helen  S.,  268. 

Conise,  Annette,  649. 


Cook,  Dr.,  552. 
Cook,  Maria,  425. 
Cooke,  Frances  M.,  554. 
Coolidge,  Addie  Ryan,  576. 
Cooper,  Ellen,  288. 
Cooper,  Susan  Fenimore,  219. 
Corbin,  Margaret,  63. 
Cornelia,  25. 
Cornell,  Sophia  S.,  519. 
Cory,  Florence  E.,  303. 
Couzins,  Adaline,  639. 
Couzins,  Phebe  W.,  639. 
Cowell,  S.  Emma,  573. 
Cox,  Hannah,  355. 
Coxe,  Margaret,  219,  267. 
Cranch,  Julia,  227. 
Crandall,  Prudence,  155. 
Crane,  Elizabeth  Watson,  509. 
Creemer,  Lucy  M.,  428,  599. 
Crittenden,  Elizabeth,  126. 
Crocker,  Lucretia,  520. 
Croly,  Mrs.  (Jennie  June),  C67. 
Crouch,  Mary,  690. 
Cumniings,  Maria,  225. 
Currie,  Mary,  524. 
Curtis,  Harriet  F.,  206,  676. 
Curtis,  Jessie,  279. 
Cushman,  Charlotte,  556. 
Cushman,  Susan,  558. 
Custis,  Eleanor  Parke,  124. 
Cutler,  H.  M.  Tracy,  325. 

Dada,  Hattie  A.,  185. 

Dall,  Caroline  H.,  345,  469. 

Damon,  Ruth  Augusta,  429. 

Danforth,  Abbie  Ellsworth,  431. 

Darlington,  Hannah,  356. 

Darrah,  Lydia,  55. 

Darrow,  Julia  May,  499. 

Davenport,  Fanny,  570. 

Davidson,  Lucretia  Maria,  243. 

Davidson,  Margaret  Miller,  243. 

Davis,  Clara,  185. 

Davis,  Hannah,  593. 

Davis,  Mary  F.,  473. 

Davis,  Minnie  S..  219. 

Davis,  Paulina  Wright,  677. 

De  Forest,  Jane  O.,  321. 

De  Hart,  Madana  F.,  555. 

De  Hart,  Sarah,  555. 

De  Kroyft,  S.  H.,  326. 

Deming,  Charlotte,  272. 

Demorest,  Madame,  591. 

De  Normandie,  Elizabeth  K.,  290. 

De  Ryther,  Jule,  571. 

Dewey,  Mary  E.,  197. 

Deyo,  Amanda,  412. 

Dickinson,  Anna  E.,  317,  571. 

Dickinson,  LidaM.,  227. 

Diehl,  Anna  Randall,  573. 

Dirnock,  Susan  T.,  535. 

Dinnies,  Anna  Peyre,  244. 

Divers,  Bridget,  174. 

Dix,  Dorothea  L.,  156. 

Dodd,  Mary  Ann  Hammer,  219. 

Dodge,  Mary  A.  (Gail  Hamilton),  225. 

Dodge,  Mary  E.,  669. 

Doggett,  Kate  N.,  286. 

Dolley,  Sarah  R.  Adamson,  547. 

Donelson,  Mrs.  Emily,  113. 


INDEX. 


725 


Donlevy,  Alice,  299. 
Doolittle,  Antoinette,  412. 
D'Ossoli,  Margaret  Fuller,  197. 
Douglas,  Mary  Ann,  288. 
Drake,  Lucy  R.,  601. 
Draper,  Margaret,  627. 
Dubois,  Mrs.,  273. 
Ducoudray,  Madame,  627. 
Duniway,  A.  J.,  684,  691. 
Du  Pre,  Julia,  287. 
Duston,  Hannah,  38. 
Dutillet,  Madame,  627. 
Dwight,  Elizabeth  Baker,  487. 

Eames,  Elizabeth  J.,  246. 
Eames,  Jane  A.,  716. 
Eastman,  Mary  F.,  322,  4C9. 
Eastman,  Sarah  P.,  524. 
Easton,  Elizabeth,  509. 
Easton,  Rachel,  587. 
Easton,  Sarah  C.,  509. 
Edson,  Sarah  P.,  185. 
Elkins,  Lydia,  587. 
Ellet,  Elizabeth  F.,  204,  244. 
Ellet,  Mary,  171. 
Elliott,  Anna,  64. 
Elliott,  Melcenia,  184. 
Elliott,  Sabrina,  64. 
Elliott,  Susanna,  64. 
Embury,  Emma  C.,  205. 
Emerson,  Frances,  524. 
Endicott,  Anna  T.,  159. 
Entricken,  Sarah,  552. 
Estes,  Huldah,  403. 
Etheridge,  Annie,  172. 
Evans,  Augusta  J.,  225. 

Tales,  Almira,  184. 
Farley,  Harriet,  205,  676. 
Farmer,  Hannah,  428,  599. 
Farnum,  Mary  Allen,  417. 
Farrar,  Eliza,  219. 
Ferguson,  Elizabeth  Graeme,  120. 
Field,  Catherine,  123. 
Field,  Kate,  570. 
Fillmore,  Abigail,  88. 
Fillmore,  Mary  Abigail,  114. 
Fiske,  Catherine,  508.. 
Fiske,  Fidelia,  493. 
Fitzhugh,  Anne,  52. 
Fletcher,  Alice  C.,  514. 
Fogg,  Isabella,  185. 
Foley,  Margaret,  272,  718. 
Follen,  Eliza  Lee,  206. 
Folsom,  Mariana  Thompson,  430. 
Forbes,  Arethusa  L.,  640. 
Forman,  Mary  Leavenworth,  125. 
Fosdick,  Hannah,  587. 
Foss,  Louise  Woodworth,  562. 
Foster,  Abby  Kelley,  334. 
Foster,  Fanny,  571. 
Foster,  Judith  Ellen,  653. 
Fowler,  Almira  L.,  552. 
Fowler,  Lydia  F.,  267,  539,  682. 
Frank,  Euii  B.,  468. 
Franklin,  Anne,  688. 
Franklin,  Deborah,  48. 
Franks,  Rebecca,  121. 
Freeman,  Alice  E.,  525. 
Fremont,  Jessie  Benton,  129. 


French,  Anna  Densmore,  323. 
French,  Bella,  684. 
Frietchie,  Barbara,  192. 
Fuller,  Electa,  700. 
Fuller,  Laura,  700. 
Fuller,  Margaret,  246,  683. 
Fuller,  Sarah  E.,  299. 

Gage,  Frances  Dana,  159,  188,  340. 

Gage,  Matilda  J.,  621. 

Gaines,  Myra  Clarke,  126. 

Gardner,  Anna,  155, 242,  321. 

Gardner,  Avis,  509. 

Gardner,  Charlotte  M.,  517. 

Garfield,  Eliza,  619. 

Garfield,  Lucretia  R.,  105. 

Garrison,  Helen  E.,  355. 

Gaston,  Esther,  61. 

Geiger,  Emily,  60. 

George,  Mrs.  E.  E.,  185. 

Gibbes,  Mary  Ann,  62. 

Gibbons,  Abigail  Hopper,  185,  335. 

Gibbons,  Sarah  H.,  185. 

Gifford,  Susan  Ann,  366. 

Gilbert,  Linda,  161. 

Gill,  Elizabeth  Mary,  595. 

Gillett,  Fidelia  Woolley,  431. 

Oilman,  Caroline  A.,  207,  236,  676. 

Gilpin,  Mrs.  Henry  D.,  126. 

Gilson,  Helen  Lk  180. 

Glazier,  Sarah,  524. 

Gleason,  Dr.,  552. 

Glover,  Anna,  510. 

Goddard,  Mary  Katherine,  627,  690. 

Goddard,  Sarah,  689. 

Goodell,  Lavina,  643. 

Goodrich,  Abigail  Whittlesey,  682. 

Goodrich,  Mrs.,  272. 

Gordon,  Laura  De  Force,  324. 

Gore,  Miss,  284. 

Gould,  Hannah  F.,  242. 

Gow,  Ellen,  524. 

Graham,  Isabella,  142. 

Granbury,  Miss,  284. 

Grant,  Julia  Dent,  97. 

Graves,  Mary  H.,  329,  469. 

Greatorex,  Mrs.,  276. 

Greble,  Mrs.  Edwin,  185. 

Greeley,  Mary  Y.  C.,  413. 

Green,  Betty,  596. 

Green,  Frances  H.,  243. 

Greene,  Anne  Catherine,  690. 

Greene,  Catherine,  119. 

Grew,  Mary,  335,  336. 

Griffin,  Josephine  R.,  190. 

Griffing,  Josephine  S.,  353. 

Grimke.  Angelina.  155,  325,  335. 

Grimke,  Sarah,  125,  325,  335. 

Guilford,  Annie,  571. 

Gustiu,  Ellen  G.,  468. 

Haddock,  Emma,  641. 

Hagar,  Sarali  J.,  190. 

Hagidorn,  Mary,  51. 

Hale,  Ellen  D.,  279. 

Hale,  Mary  W.,  238. 

Hale,  Sarah  Josepha,  207,  682. 

Hall,  Anne,  274. 

Hall,  Louisa  Jane,  237. 

Hall,  Lydia  S.,  648. 


726 


INDEX. 


Hall,  L.  C.,  524. 

Humphrey,  Sarah  W.,  520. 

Hall,  Maria  M.  C.,  185. 

Hunt,  Dr.,  552. 

Hall,  Sarah,  223. 

Hunt,  Harriot  K.,  536. 

Hall,  Susan  E.,  185. 

Hunt,  Helen  (Fiske),  226. 

Hallett,  Emma  V.,  227. 

Hunt,  Sarah  Augusta,  536. 

Hallock,  Mary,  282. 

Huntington,  Susan,  132. 

Hallowell,  R.  C.,  G83. 

Kurd,  H.  A.,  524. 

Hallowell,  Susan  B.,  524. 

Husband,  Mary  Morris,  184. 

Hamilton,  Gail  (Mary  A.  Dodge),  225. 
Hanaford,  Phebe  A.,  222,  238,  329,407,413, 

Hussey,  Nancy,  587. 
Hutchinson,  Abby,  571. 

427,  670,  713. 

Hutchinson,  Elizabeth,  571. 

Hancock,  Cornelia,  184. 
Hancock,  Dorothy  Quincy,  118. 
Hauna,  Reoecca,  537. 

Hutchinsou,  Elizabeth  Chase,  343. 
Hutchinson,  Nellie  McKay,  67L 
Hutchiuson,  Viola,  571. 

Harbert,  Lizzie  Boynton,  324. 

Harmon,  Amelia,  192. 

Inman,  Anna,  554. 

Harper,  Frances  E.  W.,  326. 

Israel,  Hannah,  59. 

Harris,  Mrs.,  184. 

Harrison,  Anna  Symmes,  82. 
Harrison,  Margaretta  Willets,  300. 
Harvey,  Cordelia  A.  P.,  184. 

Jackson,  Mercy  B.,  540. 
Jackson,  Rachel,  80. 
Jacobs,  Sarah  S.,  248. 

Haskell,  Parola,  699. 

James,  Annie  P.,  490. 

Hastings,  Caroline  E.,  323. 

James,  Caroline  A.,  430. 

Hastings,  Mary  A.,  520. 

Jarauld,  Charlotte,  693. 

Hathaway,  Mrs.  P.V.,268. 
Hawley,  Harriet  Foote,  185. 
Hawley,  Laura  M.,  245. 

Jay,  Sarah  Livingstone,  117. 
Jefferson,  Martha,  75.  ' 
Jenkins,  Helen  P.,  321. 

Hawley,  Maria,  G84. 
Hawthorne,  Mrs.,  275. 

Jenkins,  Lydia  A.,  425,  543. 
Jewell,  Catherine  Underwood,  537. 

Hayes,  Lucy  W.,  102. 

Johnson,  Agnes,  555. 

Haynes,  Dr.,  554. 
Haynes,  Lorenza,  430,  G99. 

Johnson,  Eliza  McArdle,  93. 
Johnson,  Lucie  F.,  185,  428. 

Hentz,  Caroline  Lee,  209. 

Johnson,  Lucy,  G33. 

Herrick,  Mary  Elizabeth,  659. 

Johnson,  Mary  C.,  400. 

Heyrick,  Elizabeth,  332. 
Hicks,  Margaret,  286. 

Johnson,  Mrs.,  682. 
Johnson,  Sarah  R.,  184. 

Hildreth,  Mrs.,  275. 

Jones,  Sybil,  418. 

Hill,  Frances  M.,  489. 

Joy,  Charlotte  Austin,  351. 

Hill,  Mrs.,  276. 

Judson,  Anna  H.,  482. 

Hiscox,  Mrs.,  G82. 

Judson,  Emily  Chubbuck,  199,  246,  485. 

Hobbs,  Amelia,  G49. 
Hoffman,  Sarah,  144. 

Judsou,  Sarah  B.,  483. 
June,  Jennie  (Mrs.  Croly),  667. 

Hoffman,  Sophia  C.,  144. 

Hoge,  Mrs.  A.  M.,  185. 

Keller,  Elizabeth  C.,  552.  553. 

Holley,  Sallie,  155. 

Kellogg,  Clara  Louise,  571,  572. 

Holloway,  Laura  C.,  683. 

Kenworthy,  Aim,  421. 

Holstein,  Mrs.,  184. 

Kerr,  Annie  E.*,  C7G. 

Holt,  Mary,  COO. 

Kimball,  Harriet  McEwen,  249. 

Homer,  Ella,  259. 

Kimher,  Abby,  33G. 

Hooper,  Lucy,  247. 
Hopper,  Anna  M.,  613. 

King,  Mary  Alsop,  121. 
King,  Susan,  591. 

Hopton,  Sarah,  64. 

Kingsbury,  Elizabeth  A.,  323. 

Horr,  Sophia  B.,  524. 

Kirkland,  Caroline  M.,  209,  682. 

Horteusia,  25. 

Knight,  Abbie  R.,  509. 

Horton,  Mary,  520. 

Knight,  Mary,  G3. 

Hosier,  Lydia,  587. 
Hosmer,  Harriet,  300. 

Knight,  Miss,  G32. 
Knox,  Mrs.,  118. 

Hovey,  Augusta  M.,  473. 
Howard,  Ada  L.,  524. 

Kollock,  Florence  Ellen,  43L 
Kugler,  Anna,  555. 

Howe,  Harriot  (Mrs.  Henry  Wilson),  600. 

Howe,  Julia  Ward,  228,  229,  329,  412,  428, 

Lamb,  Martha  J.,  710. 

469,  670,  717. 

Lander,  Louisa,  284. 

Howe,  Roxana,  413. 

Lane,  Amanda,  408. 

Howell,  Elizabeth  Lloyd,  239. 

Lane,  Columbia,  589. 

How  '.and,  Rachel,  421. 
Howland,  Susan,  421. 
Hoyt,  Lucy,  598. 
Hubbard,  Emma,  648. 

Lane,  Harriet,  115. 
Langston,  Dicey,  57. 
Larcom,  Lucy,  22G,  234. 
Lathbury,  Miss,  718. 

Hubbard,  Sara  A.,  676. 
Huiett,  Alta  Q.,  643. 

Lazarus,  Emma,  249. 
Lea,  Anna  M.,  279. 

INDEX. 


727 


Leaven  worth,  Mary,  125. 

Merrill,  Mrs.  John,  56. 

Le  Clerc,  Prudy,  430. 

Meyer,  Emily  L.,  227. 

Ledyard,  Mrs.  John,  135. 

Meyers,  Jane  V.,  539. 

Ledyard,  Mary,  135. 

Miles,  Anne,  237. 

Lee,  Hannah  F.,  209. 
Lee,  Mary  E.,  224. 

Miles,  Ellen  E.,  220,  238,  428,  518,  S73,  614. 
Miles,  Lizzie,  518. 

Lee,  Mary  W.,  185. 

Miles,  M.  Jennie,  185,  518. 

Lees,  Harriet,  676. 

Miles,  Sarah  E.,  237. 

Legarfi,  Mary  Swiuton,  275. 
Leiter,  Fanny  W.,  379. 
Leslie,  Ann,  273. 

Miller,  Augusta  A.,  694. 
Miller,  Emily  Huntingdon,  684. 
Miller,  Harriet  Granger,  694. 

Leslie,  Eliza,  210. 

Millett,  Deborah  D.,  605. 

Le  Vert,  Octavia,  127. 

Mitchell,  Alice,  509. 

Lewis,  Edmonia,  296. 

Mitchell,  Ellen  E.,  185. 

Lewis,  Grace  Anna,  259. 
Lewis,  Ida,  136. 

Mitchell,  Maggie,  570. 
Mitchell,  Maria,  242,  252,  326,  698. 

Lewis,  Lizzie  T.,  615. 

Mitchell,  Martha,  509. 

Lewis,  Sarah  Anna,  246. 
Lincoln,  Mary  Todd,  91. 

Mix,  Josephine  B.,  550. 
Motfinbury,  Julia,  649. 

Lippincott,  Sarah  Jane,  203. 

Molloy,  Emma,  407,  673,  691. 

Livermore,  Mary  A.,  185,  305,  432,  509,670. 
Liverniore,  Sarah  White,  236. 

Monroe,  Anna,  554. 
Monroe,  Eliza,  77. 

Lockwood,  B.  A.,  643,  650. 

Moody,  Eliza  G.,  599. 

Logan,  Olive,  570. 

Moore,  Kate,  135. 

Longley,  Margaret  V.,  683. 

More,  Hannah,  593. 

Longshore,  Hannah  E.,  539. 
Longstreet,  Miss,  670. 

Morell,  Imogene  Robinson,  282. 
Morgan,  Middle,  666. 

Lord,  Lucy  T.,  493. 
Loud,  Huldah  B.,  324. 

Morris,  Miss,  185. 
MorEe,  Rebecca  A.,  286. 

Lowe,  Martha  Perry,  239. 

Morton,  Helen,  535. 

Lowell,  Josephine  Shaw,  647. 

Morton,  Dr.,  554. 

Lowrie,  Mrs.,  455. 

Mott,  Lucretia,  150,  164,  336,  337,  417. 

Lozier,  Clemence  J.,  538. 

Motte,  Rebecca,  57,  582. 

Lozier,  C.  S.,  554. 

Moulton,  Louise  Chandler,  226 

Lunt,  Harriet  M.,  469. 

Munroe,  Nancy  T.,  428. 

Lupton,  Mrs.,  272. 
Lyman,  Mrs.  Walter,  323,  506. 

Muusell,  Jane  R.,  185. 
Murray,  Mary,  272. 

Lyon,  Mary,  499. 

Neal,  Alice  B.,  213. 

MacDowell,  Annie  A.  E.,  682. 

Neale,  Elizabeth,  336. 

Macintosh,  Sarah,  272. 

Neff,  Mary,  38. 

Mack  way,  E.,  684. 

Nelson,  Jennie,  524. 

Macomber,  Eleanor,  491. 

Newell,  Harriet,  485. 

Macy,  Anne  M.,  242. 

Newman,  E.  E.,  454. 

Macy,  Harriet,  587. 

Newton,  Charlotte  L.,  590. 

Macy,  Mary,  417. 

Nicholas,  I.  R.,  591. 

Madison,  Dolly  P.,  75. 

Nichols,  C.  I.  H.,  346. 

Maertz,  Louisa,  185. 

Nichols,  Rebecca  S.,  249. 

Mansfield,  B.  A.,  642. 
Martin,  Elizabeth,  48. 

Nivison,  Miss,  552. 

Martin,  Grace,  49. 

Oakley,  Juliana,  284. 

Martin,  Rachael,  49. 
Mason,  Caroline  A.,  235,  428. 

O'Daniels,  A.  M.,  443. 
O'Hara,  Miss,  272. 

Mason,  Emily,  129. 

Oliver,  Sophia  Helen,  244. 

Mason,  Helen  M.,  493. 

Olmsted,  Cornelia,  698. 

Matthews,  Louisa,  698. 

Orvis,  Mrs.,  275. 

May,  Abby  W.,  185. 

Osgood,  Frances  Sargent,  247. 

May,  Berenice,  509. 

Osgood,  Kate  Putnam,  249. 

May,  Caroline,  284, 

Otis,  Elizabeth  Bordman,  125. 

May,  Miss,  186,  275. 

Owen,  Maria  L.,  270,  509. 

Mayo,  Sarah  Edgarton,  248. 

McCabe,  Harriet  Calista,  382. 

Paddock,  Eunice,  587. 

McCulloch,  FanuyJ.,  698. 

Page,  Elizabeth,  615. 

McEwen,  Hettie  M.,  192. 

Palmer,  Eliza,  716. 

Mclntosh,  Maria  I.,  213. 

Palmer,  Henrietta  Lee,  227. 

McKay,  Charlotte  E.,  185. 

Palmer,  Lydia  P.,  227. 

McMeens,  Anna  C.,  185. 

Palmer,  Phebe,  598. 

McNall,  B.  A.,  651. 
Meigs,  Mary  Noel,  247. 

Parrish,  Lydla  G.,  184. 
Parsons,  Emily  E.,  184. 

Mellen,  Mary  B.,  289. 

Parton,  Sarah  Payson,  225. 

728 


INDEX. 


Patterson,  Jane  C.,  432. 

Robinson,  Mrs.,  594. 

Patterson,  Martha,  115. 

Rockwood,  Eleanor  D.,  682. 

Patton,  Abby  Hutchinson,  342. 

Rodgers,  Augusta  M.,  632. 

Payne,  Alice  Huntley,  676. 
Payne,  Jane,  552. 
Peabody,  Elizabeth  Palmer,  220,  510. 

Rodman,  Charity,  146. 
Rogers,  Mary  H.,  421. 
Rose,  Ernestine  L.,  155. 

Peake,  Mary  S.,  188. 

Ross,  Anna  Maria,  184. 

Peale,  Anna  C.,  273. 

Ross,  Laura  E.,  552. 

Peale,  Rosalba,  273. 
Peale,  Sarah  M.,  273. 

Rounds,  Christiana,  518. 
Rouse,  Mrs.  Benjamin,  397. 

Peasley,  Mrs.,  590. 
Peckham,  Lily,  325. 
Pennock,  Deborah,  357. 

Rudd,  Susan,  123. 
Ruggles,  Emily,  588. 
Ruggles,  Mrs.,  284. 

Perkins,  Sarah  M.  C.,  322,  432. 
Perry,  Katherine  White,  517. 

Rule,  Elizabeth  E.,  698. 
Rullan,  Maria,  190. 

Perry,  Mary  F.,  643. 

Runkle,  Mrs.,  676. 

Pettes,  Mary  Dwight,  184. 

Russell,  Mrs.  E.  J.,  185. 

Phelps,  ,  710. 

Russell,  Mary,  509. 

Phelps,  Almira  H.  Lincoln,  266,  508. 
Phelps,  Aurora,  163. 

Russell,  Penelope,  691. 
Rutherford,  Frances  A.,  649. 

Phelps,  Elizabeth  Stuart,  224,  323. 
Phelps,  Mrs.  I.  S.,  185. 

Safford,  Mary  J.,  184. 

Phillips,  Anne  Greene,  336. 

Samson,  Deborah,  50. 

Phillips,  Phebe,  155. 

Sarrick,  Mrs.,  627. 

Pierce,  Jane,  90. 

Sartain,  Emily,  292. 

Pierson,  Lydia  Jane,  246. 

Sawyer,  A.  R.,  300. 

Pitcher,  Moll,  53. 

Sawyer,  Caroline  M.,  245. 

Planteau,  Madam,  272. 

Sawyer,  Lucy,  624. 

Pocahontas,  32. 

Schaumberj,  Emilie,  127. 

Polk,  Sarah,  86. 

Schuyler,  Catherine,  121. 

Porter,  Eliza  C.,  184. 
Post,  Cornelia  S.,  281. 
Post,  Parthenia  S.,  281. 
Potter,  Helen,  574. 

Scofield,  Lydia  A.,  412. 
Scott,  Julia  H.,  241. 
Seaver,  Nancy  B.,  510. 
Sedgwick,  Catherine  M.,  196. 

Powell,  Elizabeth  M.,  456. 

Seton,  Eliza  A.,  164. 

Powers,  Lucy  Gaylord,  189. 

Severance,  Caroline  M.,  339. 

Powers,  Martha  E.,  573. 

Sewall,  Dr.,  554. 

Preston,  Ann,  538,  539. 

Sewall,  Lucy  E.,  535. 

Prince,  Joanna,  615. 
Prior,  Margaret,  133. 

Seymour,  Almira,  237,  428. 
Shattuck,  Mrs.  Job,  56. 

Pugh,  Esther,  407. 
Pugh,  Sarah,  155,  336. 

Shaw,  Annette,  431. 
Sheads,  Carrie,  192. 

Putnam,  Caroline,  155. 

Sheaffe,  Helen,  118. 

Putnam,  Mary  C.,  552. 

Sheaffe,  Margaret,  118. 

Sheaffe,  Susannah,  118. 

Quinby,  Adeline  Cordelia,  162. 
Quiner,  Joanna,  300. 

Shelton,  Mrs.,  595. 
Sherwood,  Emily  Lee,  671. 
Shubrick,  Mrs.  Richard,  62. 

Eand,  Susan  A.,  587. 

Shuck,  Henrietta,  492. 

Kandall,  Gertrude  E.,  524. 

Sigourney,  Lydia  H.,  230. 

Randolph,  Martha  Jefferson,  112. 
Ransom,  Sarah,  300. 

Slocum,  Helen  M.,  412. 
Slocum,  Lillie,  595. 

Ray,  Charlotte  E.,  642,  649. 

Small,  Jerusha  R.,  185. 

Ray,  Sophia  A.,  587. 

Smalley,  Ann,  595. 

Raymond,  Sarah  E.,  528. 

Small  wood,  Hannah  T.,  259. 

Ream,  Viniiie,  300. 

Smiley,  Sarah,  421. 

Redfield,  Ann  Maria,  265. 

Smith,  Abby,  352. 

Redmond,  Mary,  58. 

Smith,  Elizabeth  Oakes,  244. 

Reed,  Catherine  S.,  403. 

Smith,  Erminnie  A.,  269. 

Reed,  Esther,  55. 

Smith,  Eveline  Sherman,  246. 

Remington,  Mrs.  Mather,  592. 
Rich,  S.  Louisa,  698. 

Smith,  Fanny  I.,  268. 
Smith,  Frances  A.,  281. 

Richardson,  Abby  Sage,  713. 

Smith,  Julia,  352. 

Ricker,  M.  M.,  653. 

Smith,  Margaret  Harrison,  224. 

Ricketts,  Fanny  L.,  185. 

Smith,  Sarah  E.,  264. 

Ridgeway,  Ann,  127. 
Ritchie,  Anna  Cora  Mowatt,  247. 

Smith,  Sarah  Lanman,  488. 
Smith,  Sarah  Louise  P.,  244; 

Roberts,  Fannie,  456,  648. 

Smith,  Sarah  R.,  518. 

Robinson,  Hannah  M.,  243. 

Smith,  Sophia,  163,  520. 

Robinson,  Harriet  H.,  592. 

Snow,  Georgie,  647. 

INDEX. 


729 


Spear,  Sarah,  185. 

Spencer,  Lily  Martin,  284. 

Spencer,  Mrs.  K.  H.,  185. 

Spindler,  Mary  B.,  223. 

Spofford,  Harriet  Elizabeth  Prescott,  226. 

Soule,  Caroline  A.,  220,  330,  407,  428,  473, 

COO. 

Southwick,  Abby,  336. 
South  worth,  Emma  D.  E.  N.,  217. 
Stannard,  Martha  Pierce,  129. 
Stanton,  Elizabeth  Cady,  155,  330,  348,  670. 
Starbuck,  Elizabeth,  242. 
Starbuck,  Katherine,  014. 
Starbuck,  Lucy,  509. 
Starr,  Eliza  Allen,  676. 
Stearns,  Sarah  Burgess,  537. 
Stebbins,  Catherine  A.  F.,  352. 
Stebbins,  Emma.  288. 
Steele,  Elizabeth,  58. 
Steiubach,  Sabina  von,  271. 
Stephens,  Ann  S.,  217. 
Stetson,  Martha  A.,  325. 
Stevens,  Mary  E.,  048. 
Stevenson,  Sarah  Hackett,  263,  543. 
Stockton,  Anuis,  121. 
Stockton,  Louise,  670. 
Stoddard,  Dora  V.,  326. 
Stoddard,  Elizabeth,  249. 
Stoddard,  Harriet  B.,  494. 
Stone,  Lucinda  H.,  717. 
Stone,  Lucy,  330,  343,  670. 
Storey,  Widow,  33. 
Stork,  Helen,  524. 
Stover,  Mary,  116. 

Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  155,  201,  249,  717. 
Strickland,  S.  E.,  326. 
Stuart,  Jane,  275. 
Stuart,  Sarah  M.,  353. 
Sullivan,  Margaret  B.,  676. 
Sully,  Jane,  272, 
Swain,  Louisa  A.,  413. 
Swain,  Mary  P.,  587. 
Swain,  Miss,  265. 
Swain,  Sarah,  587. 
Swisshelm,  Jane  a.,  683. 

Talbot,  Caroline,  413,  421. 
Talley,  Susan  Archer,  249. 
Taylor,  Elizabeth,  691. 
Taylor,  Esther  W.,  543. 
Taylor,  Lydia,  691. 
Taylor,  Margaret,  88. 
Taylor,  Nellie  Maria,  184. 
Terry,  Rose,  246. 
Thaxter,  Celia,  240. 
Thomas,  Mrs.  E.,  185. 
Thomas,  Mary  F.,  539. 
Thomas,  M.  Louise,  704. 
Thompson,  Eliza  Jane,  392. 
Thompson,  Esther  E.,  524. 
Thompson,  Mary  H.,  554. 
Thompson,  Mrs.  E.  J.,  360. 
Thompson,  Sarah,  119. 
Thrale,  Mrs.,  627. 
Thursby,  Miss,  571. 
Timothee,  Elizabeth,  690. 
Todd,  Elizabeth  C'.,  699. 
Tomlin,  Mary,  684. 
Tompkins,  Amelia,  552. 
Tompkins,  Cornelia  M.,  185. 


Torrens,  Eliza,  272. 
Torrens,  Rosalba,  272. 
Townsend,  Rachel,  412,  421. 
Treat,  Mary,  268. 
Tully,  Jane,  272. 
Tupper,  Eliza,  430,  591. 
Tupper,  Ellen  S.,  702. 
Turchin,  Madame,  172. 
Turner,  Eliza,  C94. 
Turner,  Emily,  694. 
Tuthill,  Cornelia,  223. 
Tuthill,  Louisa  C.,  218. 
Tyler,  Adeline,  184. 
Tyler,  Julia  Gardiner,  85. 
Tyler,  Letitia  Christian,  85. 
Tyng,  Anita  E.,  552. 

Underbill,  Elizabeth  H.,  412. 

Van  Alstine,  Nancy,  60. 

Van  Buren,  Angelica,  114. 

Van  Buren,  Hannah,  82. 

Vance,  Miss,  185. 

Van  Cott,  Maggie  N.,  324, 460. 

Vandenhoff,  Mrs.  George,  573. 

Vandernplasse,  Mrs.,  627. 

Van  Lennep,  Mary  Elizabeth,  492. 

Van  Ness,  Cornelia,  124. 

Van  Ness,  Marcia,  124. 

Very,  Lydia  Louisa  Ann,  236. 

Vroornan,  Angelica,  51. 

Waddell,  Mrs.  Coventry,  127. 

Wade,  Jennie,  191. 

Walker,  Miss,  524. 

Wallis,  Mary  D.,  717. 

Ward,  Sallie,  123. 

Ware,  Catherine  A.,  243. 

Warner,  Anna,  50. 

Warner  (or  Wetherell),  Elizabeth,  226. 

Warner,  Harriet  E.,  295. 

Warren,  Mercy,  38,  117. 

Washburn,  Agnes  Bartram,  517. 

Washington,  Jane,  64. 

Washington,  Martha,  66. 

Washington,  Mary,  41. 

Watson,  Jennie,  269. 

Wattle,  Mary,  648. 

Way,  Amanda  M.,  455. 

Weaver,  Anna  K.,  591. 

Webber,  Mary  T.,  234. 

Webster,  Mary  C.,  432. 

Webster,  Dr.,  554. 

Welby,  Amelia  B.,  249. 

Welch,  Nancy,  615. 

Wellington,  Margaret,  693. 

Wells,  Ann  Maria,  241. 

Wells,  Charlotte  Fowler,  539,  592,  682. 

Wells,  Mrs.  Shepard,  185. 

West,  Maria  A.,  718. 

West,  Mary  Allen,  527. 

Weston,  Mary,  287. 

Wetherell,  E.  C.,  185. 

Wheatley,  Phillis,  37. 

White,  Armenia,  437. 

White,  Callie,  694. 

White,  Caroline  Earle,  160. 

White,  Emily,  552. 

White,  Sallie  Joy,  574,  671. 

Whiting,  Martha,  509. 


730 


INDEX. 


Whitman,  Bathsheba,  509. 
Whitney,  Adeline  D.  T.,  225,  717. 
Whitney,  Anna,  298. 
Whitney,  E.  F.,  698. 
Whitney,  Maria,  520. 
Whittier,  Abigail  H.,  606. 
Whittier,  Elizabeth  H.,  606. 
Whittredge,  E.  P.,  C15. 
Wilber,  Mrs.,  702. 
WUbour,  Charlotte  B.,  351. 
Wilkes,  Eliza  Tupper,  430. 
Willard,  Emma,  266,  504,  710. 
Willard,  Frances  E.,  330,  367. 
Willard,  Sarah,  524. 
Williams,  Pamela,  123. 
Williams,  Sarah  E.  L.,  677. 
Willing,  Jennie  Fowler,  440. 
Wilson,  Mary,  704. 
Wilson,  Mrs.  Charles,  122. 
Wilson,  Mrs.  Robert,  62. 
Wilson,  Mrs.,  62,  273. 
Wilson,  Mrs.,  122,  627. 
Winship,  C.  A.,  614. 
Winslow,  Emily,  336. 
Winterburn,  Charlotte  V.,  572 
Winthrop,  Elizabeth  Temple,  117. 


Winthrop,  Hannah,  118. 
Withers.  The  Misses,  288. 
Wittemneyer,  Annie,  184,  324, 
Woodbridge,  Mary  Aim,  366. 
Woodman,  Mrs.,  284. 
Woodward,  Ann  Aubertine,  580. 
Woolsey,  The  Misses,  184. 
Woolson,  Abba  Goold,  225,  323. 
Wooster,  Mary,  119. 
Worcester,  Catharine,  524. 
Wormeley,  Katherine  P.,  184. 
Wormly,  Mrs.,  295. 
Worthington,  Jane  T.,  246. 
Wright,  Mrs.  David,  56. 
Wright,  Margaret  Coffin,  154. 
Wright,  Rebecca,  595. 
Wright,  ""- 


Yale,  Margaret  Perry,  243. 
York,  Sarah  Emily,  493. 
Yorke,  Miss,  114. 
Young,  Carrie,  683. 

Zakrzewska,  Marie,  534,  556. 
Zane,  Elizabeth,  61. 
Zerger,  Mrs.,  689. 


THE  LIBRARY 

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